Glory At Abbot

There was a good winner for the stable at Newton Abbot yesterday when Grangeclare Glory (pictured above) ran out the winner of the 2m5½f handicap hurdle under Tom Scudamore.  Always travelling well behind the leaders, he took it up three from home and was still upsides when left clear by the fall of the favourite at the penultimate hurdle.  Another good jump at the last sealed matters and it is great to get his head in front for Professor Tisdall.  Ramses de Teillee also produced a decent first effort of the season, finishing third in the staying handicap hurdle.  The ground was probably a little too lively for him and the tight nature of the track would not have played to his strengths, but he still picked up some reasonable prize money and he is entitled to progress for this first outing since March.

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with flat cards from Yarmouth and Musselburgh and all-weather flat fixtures from Wolverhampton and Kempton.  It is a bit of a surprise, but David has two runners today, one on each of the all-weather cards; Olympe de Gouges and Ocean Heights.

Olympe de Gouges contests the 1m1½f maiden at Wolverhampton at 5.10pm.  This is her first start for the Pond House team and only her second ever, having finished fifth at Chelmsford previously.  She stayed on nicely in the closing stages that day and looks sure to benefit from this slightly longer trip.  There are a few in here with some solid form and she is a big price, so it will be a tough ask, although she could easily outrun her odds under Rossa Ryan.

Ocean Heights is our other runner and he contests the 1m3f novices' stakes at Kempton at 7.30pm.  A bumper winner over 2m at Stratford, he stayed on in good style from an unpromising position over a mile at Lingfield last time and this trip looks sure to suit better.  It is not an easy race to get a handle on the form, but he looks to have each-way claims under Ray Dawson.

*****

Tyson Fury maintained his unbeaten record in the third fight of his trilogy with Deontay Wilder on Saturday night, knocking out his opponent in the eleventh round after both men had been on the floor twice.  Fury claimed that he was the greatest heavyweight of his generation and it is difficult to disagree.  Wilder refused to shake Fury's hand afterwards, showing a distinct lack of sportsmanship after he was beaten fair and square once again.

Valtteri Bottas was the winner of the Turkish Grand Prix yesterday, a first win for the Mercedes driver in over twelve months.  On a track that never really dried out, it led to an interesting tactical race with several differences on strategy.  Lewis Hamilton progresed from 11th (after an engine change) to 5th but was running in third place when called into the pits by his team with eight laps to go.  Hamilton disputed the call and was clearly upset by the end result as he slipped behind Verstappen in the championship, who finished second in the race.  Mercedes still seem to have the quicker car however and things look finely poised with just six races to go.

I should never bemoan a win, but the Minnesota Vikings did everything they could last night to lose to one of the poorest teams in the NFL at home.  They eventually beat the Detroit Lions 19-17 with the final kick of the game, but having led for much of the contest, they fell behind with 37 seconds to go owing to some terribly conservative play calling.  When finally allowed to go aggressive Kirk Cousins made some great throws to get them within field goal range to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat (at last!).

*****

I quit my job at the helium factory today, I'm not being spoken to in that tone of voice.