Citrus Our Wetherby Runner

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Taunton and Wetherby as well as an all-weather flat card from Southwell.  Tom Scudamore travels to Wetherby for the mount aboard Citrus (pictured above) in the handicap hurdle at 4.00pm.  It is a very competitive nineteen runner race with plenty of possible winners - he has dropped 3lbs since his last run but he would need to return to the level of his Plumpton success.

Martabot was in the process of running a good race when slipping on the home bend at Lingfield yesterday afternoon.  These are the worst types of fall as they normally happen at speed and are totally unexpected.  Both the horse and David Noonan got up okay - let's just hope it does not effect Marabot's confidence - he was still going very well at the time.  Meanwhile, over at Carlisle Top Wood finished fourth in the staying handicap chase.

David's interview with Steve Dennis is in the Racing Post today as they start their countdown to Cheltenham.  The headline reads 'Pipe Keeps Cards Close To Chest' - where have I heard that before?!  I wonder if David told Steve the correct names of the horses on the gallops?!  I once went to Warwick with Martin to school some horses and it was amazing how many people came over wanting to know what they were all called - I never realised we had so many un-named ones in the stable!

Many happy returns to racy writer Jilly Cooper who is 80 today.  Jilly has visited Pond House a few times and I once observed her taking notes down in a little note pad - it was the worst writing I have ever seen and could not make head nor tail of it!  Still, she obviously knew what they said as she has knocked out a fair few books now!  Happy birthday Jilly!

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Arsenal were successful in their FA Cup match with Sutton last night, prevailing by 2-0.  There did not seem to be that much between the two teams and the most entertaining part of the evening was watching the Sutton reserve goalkeeper eating a steak & kidney pie in the dugout!  Meanwhile, there was a good result for Newcastle as they beat Aston Villa 2-0 - something is definitely amiss at Villa, although so long as they give manager Steve Bruce enough time I am sure he will sort it out.  They are just fortunate that there are some very bad sides at the bottom of the Championship.

Manchester City take on Monaco tonight in the Champions League at 7.45pm and I reckon the 8/13 about City could be tempting.

I am not sure if the Tony Bellew versus David Haye hype is just to sell tickets anymore.  I get the impression that these two really do not like each other very much so it should certainly make for interesting viewing.  Bellew said that he was not going to wait for the bell to ring before hitting Haye!  Sounds tasty...

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My vicar has disappeared...quick, someone get me missing parsons!