One at Southwell!

There is just one jumps meeting today at Carlisle, but we do not have any runners, instead we have one runner on the flat at Southwell this evening. Pub Crowl runs in the 7pm handicap over 2 miles and Aiden Brookes rides. This is his second start for the stable having not run too badly on debut at the track last time over a slightly shorter trip. He was slowly away from the stalls that day, a trait appears to have had all his career, and then had troubling running, but did stay galloping and he was not beaten that far in the end. The blinkers are applied today and the extra 2 furlongs in distance should suit. He is an 18 race maiden, but does have some good place form to his name. The handicapper has dropped him a few pounds and runs today in a slightly lower grade than he has been.  he does carry top weight in this, but Aiden Brookes claims a handy five pounds off his back. I would be disappointed if he does not run well tonight and he is about 12/1 in the betting.

As well as racing at Southwell, they also race on the All-weather at Lingfield today. In Ireland, they have some jumps action at Punchestown. 

There were quite a few highs and lows experienced in the racing world over the weekend, non-more than the sad death of young point of point rider Keegan Kirkby. He was riding at Charing point to point in Kent, when his horse ran out through the wing, and sadly he could not be saved. I have seen him on the West Country point point circuit for many years, he was only 25 years of age and worked full-time for Paul Nicholls. Everyone knows of the dangers of riding horses and race riding and all these things are extremely rare. They are also extremely sad and my thoughts are with his family friends and all of those that knew him. The Nicholls team had several winners over the weekend, but this pails into insignificance with this, racing is a community and we try to stick together at this time.

At Wetherby on Saturday Kepagge Ran well for a long way, but got tired from three out and jockey Jack Tudor felt the ground was sticky and a horrible and he did not really enjoy conditions. He did finish for having jumped the best yet over fences and I am sure a win over the larger obstacles is not too far away. Brinkley was disappointing in his race and pulled up and I would say it's back to the drawing board with him.

As expected, Willie Mullins dominated the Dublin racing festival at Leopardstown. While it was great to see so many horses good horses on display it is a little boring. Perhaps not all the favourites won and all the horses run on their merit, but it just shows the dominance of the close team and I fear it will be a similar story at Cheltenham next month. There was some good football results yesterday for Manchester United, who beat West Ham 3-0, and wolves who beat Chelsea 4-2 at Stamford Bridge. Arsenal also beat Liverpool 3-1 which makes things more interesting at the top of the table. There is one Premier League match this evening, Brentford are at home to Manchester City, 8pm kick-off.

England beat Italy in Rome in their first Six Nations rugby match, while there was a thriller in Cardiff between Wales and Scotland with the visitors just coming out on top. Scotland held a clear lead at half time but there was a great fight back from Wales, which made for the last few minutes, very interesting. Roll on the next round of matches!

The England cricketer are chasing a total of 399 to win the second test match in India. They haven’t made a bad start and were 6867 for one at the close play on the third day. They still have a long way to go in their chase, it looks set up to be another thrilling climax.

I tried to steal spaghetti from the supermarket… But the female guard saw me and I couldn’t get pasta!!

Have a good day!