Phantom Wins at Wincanton

  Phantonofthepoints Winner at Wincanton

It’s a busy days racing with the start of the winter millions which takes place at Windsor and Market Rasen rounds up the jumps action in Britain. The all-weather action comes from Newcastle and Southwell. In Ireland, they race over both codes with jumping at Cork and flat action from Dundalk.

We head to both Windsor and Market Rasen today. At Windsor Gericault Roque runs in the 1:15pm Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase over 3miles with Jack Tudor on board. He returns after a lengthy time off, he is looking fantastic and is in great form at home and showing all his old ability and enthusiasm and it will just be brilliant to see him in action again.   Also at Windsor we have Jamaico who runs in the 4:08pm Handicap Chase over 2miles 6f again with Jack Tudor on board. He made his British debut at the Cheltenham Festival last March which proved to be all a bit much. He is in great form at home and he looks interesting in this handicap off a mark of 122.

Over at Market Rasen, Remastered takes his chance in the 2:35pm Veterans’ Chase over 3miles with David Noonan riding. I’m glad to see this race got rescheduled twice and they’ve managed to keep it. I think the track should suit just fine and he deserves to take his chance.  He wears first time blinkers this afternoon and with a clear round I hope he won't be too far away.  To round us up at Market Rasen we have Kingston Queen who runs in the 3:10pm Mares’ Listed bumper over 2miles 1/2f with Gearoid Harney riding. She put up a nice performance last time out to get her head in front, this is a much more competitive race but she looks to be open to more improvement and deserves a crack at a better grade of race.

Yesterday at Wincanton the fog made the visibility a little harder than usual, First Lord De Cuet ran much better for a long way but got tired from two out and finished fifth. Sirekoff was returning to action after a wind op and I think he will come on from this run going forwards and may even appreciate a better surface. It was first success of the season for Phantomofthepoints and it was good to see him get his head in front after last time, he stayed on nicely in the end. The handicapper kept putting him up for his placed efforts and so it was a good performance off a mark of 129.  We rode him slightly differently, not making the running and this seemed to suit.  He doesn't seem to do a lot in front but was always doing enough yesterday.  He is a thoroughly likeable individual with a great attitude and I think there is more to come.  It was another brilliant run from King Turgeon who just lost out to second place on the line, his jumping was as good as always and overall it was another solid run from him of a career high mark.  He probably does prefer to go left handed and the ground was also quite sticky which was not ideal but it is still a super effort.

Nicky Henderson has revealed that Constitution Hill will be set to run at Cheltenham on trials day in the Grade 2 Unibet Hurdle. The Seven Barrows star has come out of his recent success at Kempton well and after missing out on a lot of the season last season, the team are keen to get going with him!

Manchester United did not play very well last night against Southampton.  For 80 minutes the team at the bottom of the league were by far the best side and led 1-0 but they somehow managed to turn things round and won 3-1 in the end!  They have one player to thank, Amad Dialo who scored all three goals and has been the best of player of the season so far for United.  Brighton won 2-0 away at Ipswich.

Did you hear about the claustrophobic astronaut?

He just wanted a little bit more space!

Happy Friday!