Leicester Abandoned!

*** UPDATE  - LEICESTER ABANDONED***

There are four meetings taking place on these shores this afternoon with jumps cards from Catterick and Leicester as well as all-weather flat cards from Newcastle and Chelmsford City.  Mind you, Leicester need to pass an early morning inspection before their meeting can go ahead.  Following heavy rain the hurdle course is soft (heavy in places) so we will have to wait and see what happens.  There are no runners from Pond House today but jockey David Noonan will still be waiting on the outcome of the inspection as he has an outside ride booked at the meeting.

There was good news for jockey Daryl Jacob yesterday as he returned from four weeks on the sidelines with a winner at Ludlow aboard Dragon d'Estruval.  Four weeks off over the Christmas period sounds great to me, but for these jockeys it would have seemed like torture.  They are certainly built of tough stuff and Jacob was out with a broken hand.  Can you think of any other sport (with the possible exception of rugby) where the participants would return from an injury like that in just four weeks?!

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Leicester and Aston Villa fought out a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their EFL Cup semi-final last night.  The winner will be likely to face Manchester City in the final as they demolished United at Old Trafford on Tuesday.

Whilst the PDC world darts championship seems to go from strength to strength, things don't seem to be running quite so smoothly for the original BDO championship.  The event, traditionally held at the Lakeside Country Club in Surrey has been moved this year to a venue inside the O2 complex and ticket sales are looking bleak.  A new location and higher ticket prices are cited for the disappointing numbers and the future of the BDO looks bleak.

There was good news for the Red Bull Formula One team as they have agreed a contract extension for superstar youngster Max Vertappen that will keep him at the Milton Keynes based outfit until the end of 2023.  Verstappen is a proven winner and looks one of reigning champion Lewis Hamilton's primary threats for the season ahead.

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I went to the library the other day and asked the librarian if she had any books on shelving.  She said, "Yes, all of them!"

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