3 Weeks Until Aintree!

There are a few good jump meetings on today with Carlisle, Chepstow and Fontwell taking place.  The ground is certainly quickening up with the recent dry spell that we have been enjoying.  There is still a little bit of cut in the ground although we do need a bit of rain, especially with the Grand National just around the corner.

There are a few good jump meetings on today with Carlisle, Chepstow and Fontwell taking place.  The ground is certainly quickening up with the recent dry spell that we have been enjoying.  There is still a little bit of cut in the ground although we do need a bit of rain, especially with the Grand National just around the corner.  With Aintree in mind, there are still plenty of horses that need to be exercised, as you can see from the photograph below of the horses on the gallops this morning.

I was watching the action yesterday from Warwick, and one that certainly went into my notebook was the Alan Jarvis trained Bow To Noone.  She was decent on the flat (rated 81) and took advantage of a potentially lenient looking hurdle mark of 97.  She won with so much in hand that her trainer must turn her out again quickly under a penalty as I can see her going up in the region of 20lbs.  Faster ground doesn't look like it will stop her either.  She is very much one to be on if running again under a penalty.

It won't be long before the flat turf season is underway again, and there has been much talk about who is likely to win the jockey's championship.  There are a whole host of jockeys who could potentially win it, although I think it could finally be Richard Hughes' turn.  Hughsie has the powerful Hannon team behind him, and with so many horses at his disposal he looks well worth a punt at odds of around 4/1.  He would surely already have won a championship if he had not picked up a few suspensions along the way - let's hope that he can steer clear of the stewards this season and land that elusive title.

*****

I enjoyed watching the football last night as Manchester City beat Chelsea 2-1 to keep the pressure on Eddie and Tony Lomas (both United fans), as well as Fergie of course!  Tony dropped into our marquee at the Cheltenham Festival last week, and if you ever saw him you would say that he was quite a sensible chap although he is a football nut...our head lad Eddie is just a nut!

There was also a good match between QPR and Liverpool as QPR won it 3-2 with the winning goal coming in the 90th minute.