Temps Wins Again

       Jaipaletemps Winner at Taunton

It was a good sporting weekend and I was particularly delighted 'my' little horse, Jaipaletemps won again at Taunton on Saturday, his fourth win of the season.  He was given a fantastic ride by Rian Corcoran as Plan A went out the window as soon as the tapes were dropped as they went so fast over the first few fences we could not keep up!  Rian did not panic and did enough to keep the horse in the race without hassling him and as the runners rounded the home turn he caught on to the tails of the leaders and then flew up the straight to win too easily in the end!  It was a good performance in not ideal conditions off a career high handicap mark and it was great all my family were there to cheer him back into the winners enclosure.  It is super achievement for any horse to win four races in a season and in the form he is currently in I am not sure he has finished improving just yet.

All our horses ran well on Saturday with October Hill running another nice race to be third in the novices hurdle at Taunton.  It was a step forward on her debut and she galloped all the way to the line again suggesting even a stiffer test of stamina will suit.  Best Night ran her usual honest and genuine race to finish fourth while Mancero took as step back int he right direction in the same race with a much improved effort.  Phantomofthepoints finished fourth at Haydock, a track he seems to like and it was a good effort from his handicap mark and returning from a fall over the larger obstacles last time.  Neon Moon unfortunately fell at Ascot, it was a strange fall as he seemed to jump the fence fine and stumble and come down after it.  Neon is absolutely fine but unfortunately Harry Cobden was stood down for the day a missed the ride on Jonbon.  Brendan Powell stepped in for the ride on Thanksforthehelp and he finished fifth, he seems just a little too high in the handicap at the moment.

It was a terrific weekend of jumps racing and it was a lovely win for Jonbon and James Bowen and it was nice to see the old boy, Protektorat winning again at Windsor yesterday and taking his career prize money to over £1 million.  We had just the one runner on Sunday and Penn Avenue ran well to finish fourth on just her second start over hurdles.  Her jumping was a little novicey but considering she was one of the outsiders in the field she ran well and now qualifies for a handicap mark.  She is a tough little filly with a good attitude and she will be winning over hurdles soon.

Today there is just one jumps meeting at Lingfield and we have one runner, Givehimthehonour.  He runs in the 3.20pm handicap chase over three miles and Jack Tudor rides.  It is fair to say he hasn't really shown a lot in just a few starts for us since coming from Ireland but the handicapper has given him a chance and I wouldn't be surprised if he showed a bit more this afternoon.  He will appreciate the step up in trip and will like the track and ground.  He is the winner of an Irish point to point and just had the four starts over fences under rules.  He is the outsider of the field but I hope he has an each way chance.

There are two all-weather fixtures today at Kempton and Wolverhampton.

There is one Premiership football match this evening as Brighton play Bournemouth at 8pm.  Manchester United Beat City 2-0 in the Manchester Derby on Saturday much to my surprise while Arsenal were held to a 0-0 draw by Nottingham Forrest,  Wolves and Newcastle drew yesterday while Everton were 1-0 winners away at Villa.  Arsenal have a seven point advantage at the top of the table.

Help!  I need to re-home a dog.  It's a small terrier and it tends to bark a lot.

If you're interested, let me know and I'll jump over my neighbour's fence and get it for you!

Happy Monday!