Jumping At Cheltenham

It's good to have jump racing back this afternoon for the first time since last Sunday, and where better than our premier course Cheltenham?  It looks as though we are in for a cracking couple of days of action, although they are inspecting the cross-country course this morning - let's just hope that both days go ahead without any problems.  It was 6°c in Brixham this morning, although I understand that it hasn't been quite so warm at the Gloucester track.  The thing that amazes me though, is that I saw a gritting lorry going around the roads near my home - they are nowhere to be seen when we have ice and snow!  I guess the councils have God syndrome - they certainly work in mysterious ways!

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I was fascinated to see that Tramore racecourse in Ireland have had twenty-five sets of easy fix hurdles stolen.  That must have been some operation as they are no small items - I can't quite see anybody trying to sell those down the local market, so what would you do with them?  I would imagine that any trainer will be a little suspicious if they are suddenly offered a job lot of cut price schooling hurdles.  Maybe the Police are going back to school?...Let's hope the case doesn't bring them down!...Anyway, I am sure they could hurdle any problem!  That's enough of that.

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Looking through the jockey's statistics, it has certainly paid to follow young Sam Twiston-Davies this season.  If you backed every one of his runners to a £1 level stake, you would be showing a handsome £84.50 profit.  There must be some fancy prices among those rides as he boasts a (respectable) strike rate of 16%, while you would be losing £133 if you backed all of champion jockey Tony McCoy's mounts despite his amazing 24% strike rate.

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