So Close for Stars

It is Friday 13th today, just in case anyone needed reminding!  There are three jumps meetings today at Chepstow, Fakenham and Kelso but the stable does not have any runners.  There is one all-weather flat card at Wolverhampton and in Ireland they race on the all-weather at Dundalk.  Rian Corcoran has travelled up to Kelso today for two rides for Rebecca Menzies so fingers crossed the long journey will be worthwhile for him.  Yesterday, Way of Stars ran a good race to be second, just getting nabbed on the line.  He settled much better in his first time hood, jumped very well and looked like he had done enough to win a prolonged duel with one rival to just get caught close home.  Jack Tudor thought we didn't stop and our four year old galloped all the way to the line and it was a nice performance.  He has a good attitude and will be winning plenty of races in the future, over hurdles and on the flat.

Follow the Plan was flat out from the start in the same race and found two miles at Taunton too sharp but she did complete and will be better over further in time. Shot Boii was again disappointing and pulled up.  Things went better in the initial part of the race but then he seemed to lose interest when slightly hampered by a loose horse and I am not sure he tried very hard.  He seems fine this morning and might be worth a try over hurdles next time.

It could be a week today that we see Constitution Hill make his all-weather debut at Southwell with Oisin Murphy riding.  To be honest, I am getting a little bored of hearing all about it but I thought I would mention it!  I am sure the press are just stirring things up to make some news but it appears that Willie Mullins is considering entering a horse in the £40,000 1m4F novice event.  Henderson has told him he should and invited him over for dinner!  I am sure the big flat trainers will not be letting them have it all their own way either but it should be a good watch at least.  Entries close at 12noon tomorrow and it sounds like their could be lots of horses aiming for this valuable contest.  You also have to remember that the usual field size at Southwell is 12, but it could go to 14 depending on what runs in the others races.  Imagine, Constitution Hill was to get a ballot mark?  Things could be interesting! 

Last night I watched the second half of the Brentford v Arsenal match which was a good game.  Arsenal took the lead before Brentford equalised before both teams had chances for a winner in the last few minutes.  With Arsenal dropping points it certainly makes things a little more interesting at the top of the table in the Title race with Manchester City now just four points behind.  Attention now turns to the FA Cup in the football world and the fourth round gets underway this evening with two matches.  Hull are at home to Chelsea while Wrexham play Ipswich.

No medals as yet for Great Britain in the Winter Olympics but we have a good chance of one today and it could be gold.  Matt Weston leads the Skeleton even at the half way point with two final runs to come today.  He is a double World Champion and was quite a bit quicker in the first two runs yesterday so hopefully he will take a bit of catching today.  You can watch him in action from 6.30pm this evening.  There is more, curling, ice hockey, skiing and snowboarding today and the men's figure skating looks like it will be a good watch this evening as well.  I watched a bit of the women's snowboarding half pipe yesterday, there were so many fallers but thankfully everyone seemed to get up okay in the end.

BREAKING: The CEO of IKEA has just been elected Prime Minister of Sweden.

He should have his cabinet together by the end of the weekend!

Happy Friday!