Two at Southwell!

       Royal Mer runs today at Southwell!
Today we have two runners at Southwell, Ya Know Yaseff and Royal Mer.  Ya Know Yaseff runs in the opening race on the card, a three mile handicap chase and Jack Tudor rides.  She is generally very consistent and has won two chases this season and been placed several times but she did put in a blelow par effort at Hereford last time.  She never went a yard that day and it was definitely too bad to be true.  We found her to be in season when she got home to the yard and so is a possible reason for the lacklustre effort.  She seem in good form at home again now and while the ground might not be ideal she did handle similar conditions well at Wincanton where she finished second.  There is already a non-runner which was quite a fancied one in the betting so I would hope if she puts her best foot forward she has a very good chance.

Royal Mer runs in the 2.25pm handicap chase over 2m4f and Jack Tudor rides.  He is twice a winner this season over fences at Ffos Las and Leicester with slightly below par efforts after those wins.  It might have been that we ran him too quickly last time so he has had nearly a month since that last run and I expect him to go well in this.  Jack gets on with him well, the track will be fine and conditions will suit.  There are only five runners and it is not the strongest of races so I think he has a good chance.

There is also jumps racing at Musselburgh today and there is all-weather action at Kempton.  In Ireland they have a good card at Punchestown which features a Grand National Trial handicap chase with 16 runners at 2.35pm and listed novices hurdle at 3.05pm.

There is point to point action today at Badbury Rings in Dorset.  With all the disruption caused by the weather there are plenty of entries and looks like being competitive action.  The first of nine races gets underway at 11.25am. 

Today there are just the two Premiership football matches with Sheffield United at home to Brighton at 2pm and Manchester United travel away to Luton at 4.30pm.

The England cricketers were all out for 319 in their first innings against India after making a promising start chasing a total of 445.  India started their second innings well and have nearly a 300 run lead at the end of Day 3.  Things don’t look that hopeful for and England win in this test.

Tiger Woods had to withraw from the Genisis Invitational Golf in California mid-way through his second round because he was feeling unwell.  Patrick Cantlay leads the way at the half way point on 13 under and has a five shot lead over the field.  Rory McIlroy had a much better second round and is now at 2 under but someone off the runaway leader at this stage.

A man broke up with his girlfriend Lorrain because he was seeing another girl named Claire Lee.

But the good news is that he can see Claire Lee now that Lorraine is gone!

Happy Sunday!