Jumps Racing Returns

The good news is that jumps racing returns today with action at both Ayr and Wincanton so it was just the one blank day of jumps racing so far this week.  The latter had an afternoon inspection yesterday but passed that and with no rain since then there are no problems there this morning, the going is heavy and it will be hard work conditions for horses and riders this afternoon.  The stable does not have any runners today.  There are two all-weather flat meetings at Lingfield and Chelmsford while in Ireland they have a jumps card at Thurles.  We had just the 7mm of rain here at Pond House in the last 24 hours so a bit of relief from recent days and has allowed things to settle down a bit but there is another weather warning for later this afternoon so we have further rain to look forward to!

Looking ahead to the coming days, things looks promising for the Dublin Racing Festival while Sandown's card will go ahead as originally planned.  There was an inspections at the track this morning to see if the hurdle races could take place with two extra provisional chase races being held in reserve.  The going remains heavy om the hurdle course but racing will go ahead with conditions slightly better on the chase track.  There is also a big weekend of racing up at Musselburgh but they have no problems anticipated with their ground currently described as good to soft, soft in places.  We have one intended runner at Ffos Las tomorrow, Turenne and while their ground has not been updated so far this morning, there was no talk of inspections at present so we will see what they say later.  

Last night there were wins for all the Premiership teams in the Champions League, except Newcastle and all bar Newcastle have automatic qualifying spot for the last 16 after finishing in the top eight positions in the league.  Newcastle actually got a good point with a draw away at Paris St Germain last night and have a play-off place so all teams are safely through to the next stage of the competition.  Tonight we have Europa League football action and Aston Villa, Nottingham Forrest and Celtic are all playing with the matches kicking off at 8pm.

We have reached to semi-final stages of the women's side of the Australian Open and the matches are taking place this morning.  Aryna Sabalenka is the world number one and is looking for her third win in the Australian Open in the last four years.  She plays Elina Svitlinova at about 8.30am while the second semi-final is between American Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina who are the sixth and fifth seeds respectively so it should be a good match.  The men's semi-finals take place tomorrow.

The funeral of the man who invented tupperware has been postponed while they try to find the right lid for his coffin. 

Have a good day!