Arc Goes To Germany

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with a flat card from Pontefract, all-weather flat fixtures from Lingfield and Wolverhampton and a jumps card from Stratford.  The best of the action today is surprisingly at Lingfield, where the 1m4f (0-95) handicap is their highlight.  It could be best left to the Ryan Moore ridden My Frankel who has a couple of disappointing efforts to overcome, but looks reasonably treated from a mark 1lb higher than when successful the last time he raced on the all-weather.

What a thrilling finish to the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Paris Longchamp yesterday afternoon, a race that was won by 72/1 outsider, the German trained Torquator Tasso, who ploughed through the mud to get up in the dying strides from Tarnawa and Hurricane Lane.  I thought for a moment that we may get there with Hurricane Lane, despite meeting trouble in running, but he was just run out of it close home.

Tarnawa ran a mighty race in second and after only three starts this season, she looks an obvious candidate to go back out to the States to try to defend her Breeders' Cup crown.

We were out of luck at Fontwell on Saturday with Veiled Secret finishing a creditable fourth in the staying handicap hurdle.  He plugged on in the closing stages but may have found this longer trip on rain-softened ground a little too far.  Itacare was third in the 2m2½f handicap chase and may just have paid the price for trying to mix it with the winner.  I am sure he will come on for this English bow.  There are no runners from the Pond House team today, although we declare this morning if we have any runners at Ludlow on Wednesday.

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David will be pleased this morning!  Chelsea moved to the top of the Premier League after beating Southampton 3-1 on Saturday.  The blues leapfrogged Liverpool and Manchester City who drew their exciting match 2-2.  Liverpool led twice, but were pegged back each time by City.

Tom Brady made a successful 'homecoming' in the NFL last night as he led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to victory over the New England Patriots, the first time he has played there since leaving his team of 20 years.  During that time, he won an unprecedented six Superbowls with them and added a seventh in his first season with Tampa Bay last year.  To give that achievement some context, no other quarterback has ever won more than three championships.  In winning last night, Brady also surpassed the record for the number of passing yards by any quarterback in history...the Vikings could certainly do with a bit of his magic as they fell to another defeat last night, this time at home at the hands of the Cleveland Browns.

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Apparently a well-establish coffee franchise is about to start putting religious quotes on their cups.  The first will say, "Jesus, this coffee is expensive".

Finally, you only have until the weekend to take advantage of our latest Horses In Training book which is available at the special offer price of £8 (including postage).  Details of how to get a copy below...