Exeter, Plumpton Runners

What a great success for Poker Play (pictured above) at Uttoxeter on Saturday to land the highly competitive 2m4f handicap hurdle at odds of 16/1.  He loved the heavy ground and absolutely bolted up under Tom Scudamore.  He is clearly going to make a very useful chaser, especially when the mud is flying.  The Angove's were listening to the commentary somewhere over Greenland on their way back to the United States having been over for last week's Cheltenham Festival - I bet it made the journey much shorter!

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon and all of the action is over the sticks from Exeter, Plumpton and Southwell.  David runs Hot Ryan and Barranco Valley at Exeter and First Lord de Cuet at Plumpton.  Hot Ryan contests the 2m7f mares' handicap hurdle at 2.10pm and she looks as though she is crying out for this test of stamina - she probably needs to improve on what she has done so far, although that is not out of the question.  Barranco Valley makes his debut for the stable after a huge lay-off.  He had some reasonable form, but there are others in there with similar credentials and he is thoroughly entitled to improve for the run.  Over at Plumpton, First Lord de Cuet runs in the bumper at 4.55pm.  He was the good winner of an Irish point-to-point and showed plenty of ability when narrowly beaten on his rules debut, despite showing definite signs of greenness.  He looks to have a good chance under David Noonan.

*****

I hope a few of you followed my football bets at the weekend with both Wolves and Watford obliging at decent prices.  Chelsea lost 2-0 to Everton with their manager Maurizio Sarri saying his team was clueless!  Surely he has something to do with that?  I also watched Fulham lose to Liverpool and I don't think the Fulham keeper would have had the best night's sleep - he dropped Mo Salah's cross and then in the 81st minute he conceded a penalty.  Meanwhile, the Millwall keeper also had a stinker - he let a ball go through his hands that even I would have been embarrassed about.  Millwall went on to lose to Brighton in a penalty shoot-out.

I don't think recent Players' Championship winner Ronnie O'Sullivan will be welcome in Gibraltar anytime soon having said that he would 'rather sleep with Miss Piggy' after snubbing the Gibraltar Snooker Open and slamming the £25,000 prize money.

I watched the world title fight that Katie Taylor won in Philadelphia having stopped Rose Volante.  She now holds three world titles with the win setting up a unification fight with WBC holder Delfine Persoon.  These women know how to throw a punch and I wouldn't want to upset them?

What a result for Rory McIlroy as he landed the Players' Championship and a cheque for £1.7 million - his first success in a year.  Suddenly his game has come back together and he will now head to Augusta next month to tackle the Masters, the only major he is yet to win.

*****

Where do you find the biggest spiders?  The world wide web!

Tweet