Leon 3rd In Welsh Champion

Leoncavallo ran a great race to finish third in the Welsh Champion Hurdle at Ffos Las on Saturday.  Prominent throughout, he still had every chance when blundering at the penultimate flight.  He stuck on well nonetheless but was just run out of second close home.  A thoroughly likeable type who runs well in all of the best handicaps, he richly deserves a big one for himself.  Umbrigado was a little disappointing - he was still in touch and seemingly going okay when a bad error three from home put paid to his chances.

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with flat cards from Bath and Pontefract, an all-weather flat fixture from Wolverhampton and a jumps meeting from Plumpton.  The best of the action today comes from Pontefract where they have a Listed contest for two year old's that features some promising types.  Westover is a worthy favourite, although there may be a bit of each-way value to be had in Sweeping who finished fourth in the Chesham at Royal Ascot in June.  He has shown that he can handle a bit of cut in the ground and should be thereabouts again.

David has no runners today, although we are back with runners tomorrow at Exeter.

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Chelsea remain top of the Premiership after their 1-0 victory over Brentford, but it was Liverpool who looked most impressive over the weekend, putting five past Watford and it should probably have been more.  We were right about West Ham getting the better of Everton yesterday too.

Cameron Norrie became the first British tennis player to win the Indian Wells tournament yesterday, coming from a set and a break down to beat Nikoloz Basilashvil in the final.  His success here moves him into the top 16 in the world.  Tennis in this country is on something of a high at the moment with this success following hot on the heels of Emma Raducanu's success in the US Open.

Mark Allen produced a sensational comeback to land the Northern Ireland Open snooker in front of his home fans by reeling off the last three frames to beat John Higgins in the final.  Allen had led for much of the match, but it looked to be a hopeless cause as he trailed 8-6 in the best of 17 frame match.

The NFL match in London was an exciting affair between the Jaguars and the Dolphins, with the former prevailing with the last kick of the game to give them their first success since the first game of last season.  Meanwhile, my beloved Minnesota Vikings played well to beat Carolina, although once again they did their best to lose, allowing the match to go to overtime despite being the better team for much of the game.  They never make it easy on their supporters!

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My girlfriend discovered I was cheating on her, having found a pile of letters I’d hidden, she said she’s never playing scrabble with me again!