2 Runners At Exeter

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Sandown, Sedgefield and our local course, Exeter, whilst there is an all-weather flat fixtures from Newcastle.  David has two runners today with Main Fact and Dusky Hercules representing the Pond House team at Exeter.  Main Fact makes his debut for the stable in the 2m2½f handicap hurdle at 12.25pm after an absence of 600 days.   He resumes from a mark just 1lb higher than when last successful on heavy ground at Wetherby and on that basis, he has a chance with Fergus Gillard taking 7lbs off his back, although he is entitled to improve for the run.  Our other runner is Dusky Hercules (pictured above, courtesy of John Partridge) who runs in the 2m7f novices' handicap hurdle at 2.05pm.  He was a creditable third on his penultimate start at Taunton, although he was a little disappointing last time.  He would obviously need to improve on that effort, but this longer trip should help and Fergus Gillard claims a handy 7lbs.

Mrs Miggins didn't manage to trouble the judge at Wincanton yesterday which was a little disappointing.  However, she had shown progressive form previously and this effort was clearly not her form.  I am sure there will be other days for him.

Well done to Hollie Doyle who became the winning-most female rider in a calendar year yesterday at Southwell when securing her 107th winner of the campaign.  This is a fabulous achievement to beat the jointly held record of Hayley Turner and Josephine Gordon.

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There were away wins for Newcastle and Brighton yesterday as they defeated Sheffield United and Arsenal respectively.  There will be growing unease amongst the Gunners fans as their team languish in tenth place in the table, whilst time has run out for Everton boss Marco Silva, who was shown the door after his team's 5-2 drubbing by Liverpool earlier in the week.

There was yet another upset at the UK snooker yesterday as Ronnie O'Sullivan was beaten by Ding Junhui.  The top three in the market; Trump, O'Sullivan and Robertson have all made surprise early exits.  Maybe they need some time for their Christmas shopping?!

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Did you feel it?  There was a large bang and shudder last night at around 11pm.  From news reports, it would seem that Somerset experienced an earthquake centred around the Bridgwater area.  My home in Taunton shook and my initial thought was that there had been a car or rail crash.  According to David it wasn't felt as far away as Pond House which has to be considered good news for the horses.

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How do you know when Santa's in the room? You can sense his presents!

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