Weekend Runners

There is some interesting action to look forward to this afternoon with four flat meetings from Chepstow, Doncaster, Newbury and Newmarket with coverage of the two latter meetings on ITV.  The big races of the day both come from Newbury where they host the Group 3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes as well as the Group 2 Hungerford Stakes.  There is certainly a variance in going today following the localised storms.  The ground at Newmarket and Doncaster is good/firm whilst Newbury is good/soft (soft in places) and Chepstow is soft.  I know it sounds obvious, but if you are thinking of having a bet at Newbury or Chepstow, make sure that your selection will go on testing going.

There are no runners from the Pond House team today, although we will be back with a couple at Market Rasen tomorrow.  The box will be setting off early in the morning with Paricolor and To Fly Free.  Don't forget to read about their prospects here tomorrow.

Some of the staff from Philip Hobbs' yard came down for a friendly game of football last night.  There was quite a range of abilities on display but it was a good match with the final score a fair 3-3 draw.

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The semi-finals of the snooker both went to deciding frames with Kyren Wilson beating Anthony McGill 17-16 and Ronnie O'Sullivan edging out Mark Selby by the same scoreline.  They were both extremely odd matches with some extraordinary moments and bizarre shot selections.  O'Sullivan looked down and out as he trailed Selby 16-14, apparently having given up, only to reel off three frames in quick succession (with his opponent barely getting to the table) to record a remarkable victory.  He will take some stopping as he bids for a sixth world title.  The final gets underway today with spectators allowed into the venue for the first time since day one.

England find themselves in a good position at the start of day 2 of the second test match against Pakistan.  England reduced the visitors to 223-9 when bad light stopped play.  The trouble is the forecast doesn't look too clever over the coming days.

There was a real shock last night in the Champions League quarter finals after the mighty Barcelona were beaten 8-2 by Bayern Munich.  Barcelona were terrible and clearly have some thinking to do going forward.

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Why do you never see elephants hiding in trees?  Because they are so good at it!

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