Junior On National Trail

There is a great day of jump racing action ahead of us with top quality cards at Newbury and Sandown.  It's like London bus syndrome - you wait for ages to get some decent racing on and then two meetings come along at once (and on a Friday to boot!).  We have six runners at Newbury - I'm So Lucky, Presenting Ace, Taratata Sivola, Junior, Buena Vista and Gevrey Chambertin, while over at Ascot Diamond's Return, Dukes Art, Spirit Of Barbados and Bathwick Brave do duty for the yard.  It should certainly be an informative afternoon and I will be fascinated to see how Grand National favourite Junior gets on, this reappearance over hurdles should certainly sharpen him up, while Grands Crus' full brother Gevrey Chambertin won with plenty in hand on his racecourse debut last time at Ffos Las and it will be interesting to see how he gets on in a better race.

Royal Ascot & Cheltenham Festival winner Junior embarks on the Grand National
trail this afternoon as he makes his seasonal reappearance over hurdles at Newbury 

There is a great day of jump racing action ahead of us with top quality cards at Newbury and Sandown.  It's like London bus syndrome - you wait for ages to get some decent racing on and then two meetings come along at once (and on a Friday to boot!).  We have six runners at Newbury - I'm So Lucky, Presenting Ace, Taratata Sivola, Junior, Buena Vista and Gevrey Chambertin, while over at Ascot Diamond's Return, Dukes Art (pictured right, working in company with high class chaser Dan Breen), Spirit Of Barbados and Bathwick Brave do duty for the yard.  It should certainly be an informative afternoon and I will be fascinated to see how Grand National favourite Junior gets on, this reappearance over hurdles should certainly sharpen him up, while Grands Crus' full brother Gevrey Chambertin won with plenty in hand on his racecourse debut last time at Ffos Las and it will be interesting to see how he gets on in a better race.

*****

I thought that we were treated to another classic ride from A P McCoy yesterday as he forced Prince Of Pirates up in a driving finish to dead-heat at Leicester.  Unfortunately the champ picked up a four day ban for hitting his mount nine times.  If he had hit the horse eight times he would not have forced the dead-heat and I honestly believe that the stewards are making a mockery of the sport.  What other sports can you think of where you can get banned for trying too hard?!

What do you think will happen at the Cheltenham Festival if there are a number of jockeys in contention at the last in the Gold Cup?  You cannot seriously expect me to believe that a jockey is going to put his stick down if his mount is responding up the Cheltenham hill - they certainly aren't goind to say "I have used up my strikes, I had better just sit on the horse and hope that he runs on up that stiff uphill finish"...do me a favour!

What about these lazy horses that need plenty of encouragement in the early part of their races?  If the jockey uses all his strikes in the early stages and then just coasts home, will they be banned for not trying?  It's time to bring in professional stewards to use their discretion with all matters regarding to riding, rather than adhering to these inflexible and ridiculous regulations.