Great Racing

There are two jumps meetings today at Carlisle and Taunton and unusually for us, we do not have any runners at our most local track.  It is very rare for the ground at Taunton to be described as heavy, but that is what it is for today and it is not a surprise given recent weather conditions.  A lot of Taunton was flooded last week, with parts still remaining under water and that is very unusual as Taunton usually sits in its own little bubble and seems to miss a lot of the worst weather.  Taunton rugby club was flooded and I believe there is a crowd funding page to try to help it recover.  The Injured Jockeys Fund hub is based at the rugby club and is a great facility for jockeys and people connected with racing in the South West.  I am not sure how their facilities have been affected but certainly the entire downstairs of the building was under water at one stage.  It is a lovely facility and I have done Christmas wreath making for the last couple of years as racing secretaries were invited to come along.  Hopefully the facility will be back up and running fairly soon.

It looks to be good cards at both Taunton and Carlisle today with plenty of runners and competitive racing.  In Ireland the good action continues with a jumps fixture at Fairyhouse which has a Grade 3 mares novices hurdle at 2.25pm.  There are six runners but the betting suggests it is just a two horse race with the Gordon Elliott trainer JP McManus runner just shading favouritism from the Willie Mullins trained Gigginstown horse with the rest at big prices.  Mark Walsh has just had a fantastic couple of days wearing the green and gold hoops with four Grade One successes and I think he had add another Graded race to his CV this afternoon.  There is also a flat meeting at Wolverhampton this evening.

Yesterday there was another good day of racing at the Dublin Racing Festival.  Doctor Steinberg was impressive in victory and is now 2-1 favourite for the Albert Bartlett novices hurdle at Cheltenham next month.  Narcisco Has won the juvenile contest nicely, enhancing his festival.  There is the old adage that you don't need many horses to make a good horse race and so this proved in the Irish Arkle yesterday.  Kargese looked to have the measure of Romeo Coolio before the last fence, only for him to overtake her a look the certain winner until the last 50 yards and she fought back strongly to just about force a photo finish but was narrowly denied.  It was a great race but I am sure this will have taken it's toll on both horses with regards to Cheltenham next month.  Willie Mullins had 1-2-3 in the Irish Gold Cup and Fact to File was impressive in victory, Gaelic Warrior was a gallant second and Galopin Des Champs was third.   

Last night there was an easy win for Sunderland who beat the struggling Burnley 3-0 at home.  Tonight we have the second leg of the League Cup semi-final between Arsenal and Chelsea.  Arsenal bring a 3-2 advantage back to the Emirates from the first leg so they would have to be favourites but it is a cup game and anything can happen! 

What did the dalmatian say after she ate a huge meal?

That hit the spot! 

Have a good day!