Painter Perfect At Leicester!

Painter Man bolted up by nine lengths in very testing conditions at Leicester yesterday afternoon under Tom Scudamore.  He finished tired, but I think he was idling a bit in front as you could see him looking around after the last - there were only six finishers from the eleven that set out, so that tells you how difficult conditions were come the last race of the day.  It was a good performance on only his second outing after an eighteen month absence and I would imagine that David will be turn him out again under a penalty before the handicapper can exact his revenge.  The trouble is, when you get bottomless ground (as was the case yesterday), you do tend to get exagerated winning margins - please keep that in mind Mr Handicapper!

The stable has a couple of runners at Hereford this afternoon, Quinte du Chatelet and Home Run.  I thought that Quinte du Chatelet took a step back in the right direction at Taunton last time out, while Home Run, who was a decent performer on the level in France makes his handicap debut this afternoon.

*****

There is good Carling Cup semi-final action on Sky Sports this evening at 7.45pm.  Liverpool take on Manchester City in the return leg and they will be hoping to protect their 1-0 lead.  Personally I think that City will stamp their class on the game tonight at Anfield and get the result they need to reach the final, although I am not sure that I would play Balotelli - the Liverpool players and Anfield fans will wind him up.

*****

The Abu Dhabi Golf Championship has attracted an unbelievable entry with the likes of Kaymer, McIlroy, Woods, Donald and Westwood in the line-up.  I wonder how much they are paying these players to turn up?  Tiger is only a 7/1 chance with the bookies and that looks miserly to me...he should in all fairness be much bigger.  He will struggle to beat the top 3 in the world right now, but he will always attract punters money - the bookies would know this, so why aren't they offering better odds?