One Chepstow Runner

       ***UPDATE – KEPAGGE NON-RUNNER
                     AT CHEPSTOW***

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps action coming from Chepstow and Mussleburgh, whilst there are all-weather flat fixtures from Lingfield and Newcastle.  Given the spate of abandonments we have had in recent days it is something of a surprise that Chepstow gets the go ahead without so much as a precautionary look.  With a reading of 3.2 on the going stick on the chase course it is certainly going to be extremely testing.  David has one runner today as Kepagge (pictured above) contests the 2m3½f novices' hurdle.  He was a convincing bumper winner at the track in November and won on his hurdling debut at Leicester last time despite some untidy jumps.  He has schooled well at home and is capable of better than he showed that day.  Getaway Fred is the one to beat, but Kepagge has a chance under Tom Scudamore.  Unfortunately there are only seven runners so the bookies will only pay two places.

I see that Tom Queally, who is best known for his unbeaten partnership with the legendary Frankel has decided to give it a go as a jump jockey in a bid to ride more winners.  During the Frankel days, Queally was regularly riding over 100 winners during the course of the flat season, but that number had slipped to just 15 at a 5% strike rate last term.  He finished runner-up in a bumper at Market Rasen earlier in the week and it will be interesting to see how he fares over timber and how he is supported by the trainers.

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Fulham take on Middlesbrough in Championship football action tonight with the visitors coming in on the back of a hot streak having won four of their last league games.  Furthermore they performed well against Spurs earlier in the week in their FA Cup replay and should be too good for Fulham.

Ben Stokes was key in helping England recover from a poor start on the first day of the third cricket test against South Africa.  England finished the day on 224-4 having been reduced to 148-4.  We could really do with him sticking around for a while when play resumes this morning to help give England a decent platform on which to build.

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I went to the hairdressers yesterday and asked to have my hair cut like Tom Cruise...so they gave me a cushion to sit on!

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