Back At Cheltenham

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Cheltenham, flat cards from Doncaster and Newbury and an all-weather flat fixture from Newcastle.  It is great to be back at Cheltenham for their season opening meeting and David has two runners at the home of jumps racing; Siruh du Lac and Elan de Balme, whilst Flammarion competes on the flat at Newbury.  Siruh du Lac (pictured above) makes his seasonal reappearance back over timber in the 3m novices' hurdle at 3.05pm.  A Cheltenham Festival winner over fences, he has had just one run for the stable when unlucky to unseat in the Paddy Power Gold Cup last year.  He shapes as though he will enjoy this longer trip and should be thereabouts with Tom Scudamore in the saddle.  He is an exciting horse for the season ahead.

Elan de Balme is our other runner as he contests the amateur riders' handicap chase at 4.50pm, a race that David has won several times in the past.  He ran well when runner-up on his last start at Ffos Las, form which has worked out well and he has had a wind operation in the interim.  This is a wide open race, but he won't mind the drying ground and has place claims at a decent price with experienced amateur jockey Martin McIntyre in the saddle.  I am sure he will give the assembled members of the David Pipe Racing Club a real thrill.

Flammarion contests the apprentice jockeys' flat handicap over two miles at Newbury at 5.35pm.  He finished a good runner-up on his first start for the stable and went one better when scoring well on his hurdling debut at Newton Abbot last time.  This trip is a little bit of an unknown on the flat, although he has won a bumper so there is every reason to be optimistic.  This is a tight little race, but he looks to have decent each-way claims for the Willpower Partnership.

We were unlucky not to be among the winners at Newton Abbot yesterday with Do Ya Feel Lucky upsides and seemingly getting the better of things when falling at the last flight of the 3m2½f mares' handicap hurdle.  She had jumped beautifully until that point and really deserved better.  The main thing is that she is okay and hopefully she will be able to atone for this.  Itacare was fourth in the 2m5f handicap chase.  He was staying on in the closing stages when hampered by a faller - his jumping should improve with experience over British fences and he looks capable of winning something similar.  Paricolor was unplaced in the handicap hurdle and remains 11lbs higher than his last winning mark, whilst Dellaway is entitled to improve for the experience of his first racecourse appearance in the bumper.

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West Ham took a significant step towards making the latter stages of the Europa League with a convincing 3-0 victory over Belgian side, Genk last night.  Unbeaten in three matches, they are comfortably on top of their group and in a very strong position.

There is mid-table Premiership action tonight with Arsenal hosting Aston Villa.  Arsenal will be hoping that Bukayo Saka will be fit to play having been on the receiving end of an awful challenge on Monday night.  If fit, Arsenal look to have the edge here.

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I have decided to sell all of my old chiropractic magazines...I have loads of back issues.