Kempton, Newcastle Runners

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Kempton and Newcastle and a couple of all-weather flat fixtures from Lingfield and Chelmsford City.  David has two runners this afternoon; Eden du Houx who runs at Kempton and Little Red Lion who contests the Eider Chase at Newcastle.  At Kempton Eden du Houx runs in the 2m5f handicap chase at 4.10pm.  A high class bumper/hurdles performer, he has been a little disappointing over fences so far at distances of around 3 miles.  He ran his best race over timber last season at this track over 2m4½ when not beaten far by McFabulous (form which looks very good now) so similar conditions and better ground could bring about some improvement and he has each-way claims under Tom Scudamore.

Our other runner is Little Red Lion (pictured above) who will be competing in the colours of the David Pipe Racing Club in the Eider Chase at Newcastle at 3.15pm.  He has won each of his completed starts this season and is a progressive young stayer.  This does represent a big step-up in class but he has earned it with battling successes at Lingfield, Taunton and most recently Chepstow over hurdles.  He stays very well so hopefully this 4m1f marathon trip will be within his compass, although the drying ground may be more of a concern as each of those successes has come on heavy ground.  He is 5lbs out of the handicap so we have tried to offset some of that with the claim of Ben Jones who takes 3lbs off his back.  One thing is for sure, Little Red Lion will not be beaten for lack of support!  I am sure David Pipe Racing Club members will be cheering him on in front of their televisions this afternoon.

The Racing Club has given plenty of enjoyment to its members since forming at the end of 2019, bringing the best bits of racehorse ownership at only a fraction of the cost.  The number of members is not limited and the more members we have, the mores horses we hope to have running in the famous black and white colours.  If you would like to join or find out more information, click here.

The stable had a couple more places at Exeter yesterday with Panic Attack finishing third and Buster Edwards fourth.  Although a drying day, the ground at the Devon track was holding and very hard work and not to Panic Attack's liking.  She will certainly be seen to better effect on a sounder surface and perhaps a flatter track.  Similar comments apply to Buster Edwards, who nonetheless took a step forward on his most recent efforts and is certainly up to winning something similar.

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There are four Premiership football matches to look forward to this afternoon with Manchester City versus high flying West Ham appearing the best of them.  The two teams fought out a draw earlier in the season, although City have really found their mojo and look a completely different side now.  I would be very surprised if the Hammers were able to beat them at the Etihad.

John Higgins walloped Mark Selby 6-0 in the Players Championship snooker yesterday to set up a semi-final clash with Kyren Wilson to see who will play Ronnie O'Sullivan in the final tomorrow.  O'Sullivan came back from 3-0 down to beat Barry Hawkins 6-4 and reach a record equalling 57th ranking final.

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For a school science experiment four worms were placed in four separate test tubes:

The first in beer
The second in wine
The third in whiskey
The fourth in mineral water

The next day, the teacher shows the results:

The first worm in beer, dead.
The second worm in wine, dead.
The third worm in whiskey, dead.
The fourth worm in mineral water, alive and healthy.

The teacher asks the class:
What did we learn from this experiment?

And a child responds:
"Whoever drinks beer, wine and whiskey will not have worms!"