Activist at Leicester

       Activist runs at Leicester Today

It is a slightly quieter day on the racing front in Britain with just two jumps meetings today at Carlisle and Leicester and we have one runner at the latter, Activist.  He runs in the two mile handicap hurdle at Leicester at 1.25pm and Jack Tudor rides.  He was a winner over course and distance twelve months ago on good to soft going off of a eight pound lower mark.  The track is due rain before racing but he shouldn't mind that and he is having his first run since a wind operation.  It is a competitive nine runner race and life will be tough off his rating of 110 with his last winning mark being 104 but he ran well for a long way at Chepstow on his seasonal reappearance and if the wind op has helped then I hope he can continue to progress further.  He does have his critics but he has actually won four races from 15 career starts over hurdles so that is not too bad a strike rate!

There is no flat racing in Britain today but there is a very good card at Fairyhouse this afternoon.  There is graded action which includes the Drinmore novices chase at 2.06pm for which Romeo Coolio is the short priced favourite.  The Hatton's Grace hurdle follows at 2.36pm and it promises to be a cracker with the return of Ballyburn to hurdles against Teahupoo at the top of the market.  

If you are interested in the International racing, today it is the Japan Cup and it has added interest this year with the Arc and European Horse of the Year, Calandagan in the line up.  You will have to be up early though as the race is due off at 6.40am British time and will be shown live on Sky Sports Racing from Tokyo Racecourse.  There is £5.68 million in prize money on offer for the 1m4f race with additional bonuses also up for grabs.  It has proved very difficult for the European's to win over the years and I think the last winner came back in the 1980's!  Auguste Rodin and Goliath are two more recent horses to have tried their luck in the race without success and so it will be interesting to see how Calandagan fares.  Tom Marquand has a ride in the race as he is currently based over there and he partners the horse Brede Weg.

There are five Premiership football matches today and the first to kick off is Crystal Palace against Manchester United at 12 noon.  Three games follow at 2.05pm and the 4.30pm kick off is a match to look forward to with Chelsea against Arsenal.  Both teams had significant wins in Europe during the week and are in good form so it should be a good game.

Just broke two of my dad's old Queen records.

Now I want to break three...

Have a lovely Sunday!