Bumpy at Wincanton!

 Bumpy Johnson runs at Wincanton today!

Today we just have the one runner at Wincanton, Bumpy Johnson, after unfortunately Sandown was abandoned yesterday due to waterlogging.  Bumpy Johnson runs in the 3.15pm handicap hurdle over 2m5f and Jack Tudor rides.  Our eight year old has had two runs over fences so far this season and after a promising enough chasing debut the wheels fell off last time at Taunton with his jumping.  It is fair to say he probably did well to stay on his feet and finish as close as he did after all the errors he made on the way round but we have reverted to hurdles this afternoon to give him a confidence boost.  There are just the seven runners and we are 14/1 in the betting but if he returns to the same level of form as he was in the second half of last season then he definitely has an each way chance.  He is back down to his last winning mark of 120, the track and ground will be fine and hopefully he can show his true form this afternoon.

Yesterday at Southwell we did not have a lot of luck in how the race panned out for Pub Crawl.  The plan was to be quite handy in the race but he was slowly away from the stalls and it was effectively race over from there.  They didn’t go a great gallop and as he tried to improve turning for home he also got hampered as well.  In fairness to the horse he galloped all the way to the line and was not beaten that far, probably only as far as the ground he lost at the start.  Our jockey felt he would stay 2 miles on the flat so I think there is plenty more to come from him, maybe over a bit further and maybe with some headgear on.  He has schooled nicely over hurdles at home so he will be going jumping at some point as well.

With the loss of the meeting at Sandown we are left with two jumps meetings today at Newcastle and Wincanton.  There are two all-weather flat meetings at Newcastle and Southwell and in Ireland they have a jumps card at Cork.  We are hoping they can re-arrange the Veterans Chase Final that was lost at Sandown yesterday.  We were looking forward to running Ramses De Teillee as he is in good form at home so hopefully they can put it back on fairly soon.

Last night in the football lots of action.  There was a lot of action packed into the Brentford & Wolves game leaving the final result was 1-1.  The hosts dominated possession at Brentford Community Stadium and led on 41 minutes when Neal Maupay fired home, but Wolves grabbed a draw in fine style as Tommy Doyle drove in from 25 yards for his first goal for the club.  The Fulham & Rotherham game resulted in a victory for Fulham 1-0, the home side seemed to take domination in possession but lacked a cutting edge and it took and error from the Rotherham defender Sebastian Revan to give them the lead.  While Rotherham can't content themselves with creditable performance in defeat, Fulham can look forward to an exciting Carabao Cup semi-final on Wednesday against Liverpool.  Lastly it was Spurs & Burnley, and Spurs dominated finishing with a 1-0 victory for them, beating fellow Premier League side Burnley to move into the fourth round of the FA Cup thanks to Pedro Porro's stunning strike.  

There is plenty of FA Cup 3^rd round football action today with all the games either kicking off at 12.30pm, 3pm or 5.30pm and if you are keen to watch any of the matches on the TV, you can see the following.  Sunderland V Newcastle 12.45pm ITV1, Middlesborough V Aston Villa 5.30pm BBC1, Chelsea V Preston 5.30pm BBC Red Button.

I told my psychologist I am scared of living in a tall building. 

He said it’s only an apartment complex!  Have a great day!