Brinkley Stars At Newbury

There was a nice winner for the stable yesterday afternoon when Brinkley ran out a most impressive winner of the NH novices' hurdle at Newbury on his debut for the Pond House team.  Prominent throughout, he led early in the home straight and galloped right away from his rivals after the last under Tom Scudamore to create a most favourable impression.  He had shown some good form in Ireland, notably when right behind Champion Bumper runner-up Blue Sari and subsequent winner The Bosses Oscar.  Owners Garth and Anne Broom certainly look to have another nice prospect on their hands.  He holds a couple of entries at the Cheltenham Festival and he looks to be well-deserving of those.

Unfortunately Newbury have fallen foul of an early morning inspection ahead of their fixture this afternoon.  At the moment there are no problems at the other meetings where Doncaster and Kelso host jumps cards, whilst there are all-weather flat fixtures from Lingfield and Southwell.

We were due to have four runners at Newbury, but now we are left with just two at Doncaster where Remastered contests the 3m½f handicap hurdle at 1.50pm.  He would need to improve on his latest effort to figure, but a repeat of his penultimate outing where he was just touched off by subsequent Welsh National winner Potters Corner on his first start at three miles gives him every chance.  Tom Scudamore is in the saddle.

Kepagge is our other runner at the norther track and he runs in the 2m3½f novices' hurdle at 4.10pm.  He was impressive in a Chepstow bumper on his debut for the stable and recorded a ready success despite an indifferent round of jumping last time at Leicester.  The small field did not suit that day so that is a concern, but he has schooled well at home and with a couple of possible front-runners in the line-up they should go a better pace this time.  He has to concede 7lbs to a potentially useful rival in Firak but he looks to hold decent claims under Tom Scu.

It is a shame to hear that Un de Sceaux has been retired after picking up a leg injury.  The ten time Grade One winner was a big favourite on both sides of the Irish Sea and would have been hugely popular at next month's Cheltenham Festival.  It is the latest in a string of recent reversals for the Mullins team.  Un de Sceaux has been a marvelous horse and we wish him a long and happy retirement.

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I did say that the football was a lot closer than the market would suggest last night and so it proved with Norwich earning an extremely valuable three points by beating Leicester City 1-0.  They remain bottom of the Premiership but gives them renewed hope of staying up.

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I walked into a bar the other day and ordered a double.  The barman brought out someone who looked just like me!  Have a great weekend...

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