Disney Double For Rose!

It was another epic day at Sandown yesterday thanks to Rathlin Rose and Captain Guy Disney as they added the Grand Military Gold Cup to their earlier Royal Artillery success.  The pair scorched up the run-in to score by 12 lengths to complete a famous double.  Although this was not a handicap, such was his superiority it is hard to imagine him not going up in the weights for this.  Meanwhile, Shaama Grise posted a very game effort finishing second in the handicap hurdle on her first try at 2m5 1/2f and Mr Clarkson finished runner-up in the concluding novices' hurdle.  With the Festival starting on Tuesday it is good to see the horses running well.

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Ayr, Hereford and Sandown, while there are a couple of all-weather flat fixtures at Chelmsford and Wolverhampton.  David has three runners at Sandown this afternoon; Great Tempo, Ramses de Teillee and Max do Brazil.  Great Tempo contests the juvenile handicap hurdle at 1.20pm - he was a ready winner on his British debut but would need to improve on his latest couple of starts.

Ramses de Teillee contests the valuable EBF Final at 1.50pm - he gets in this handicap from a fair mark of 119 and looks to have sound claims under stable jockey Tom Scudamore.  It is a £65,000 race, so obviously it is extremely competitive.  Our final runner is Max do Brazil who runs in the Imperial Cup - a race that Martin won six times and David has already landed on three occasions.  Should the winner of this race follow-up at next week's Festival, they will pick up a cool £50,000 bonus...something that was last achieved when Gaspara did the double for David in 2007.  Max was pulled-up on his first start for the stable but he is clearly better than that and his French form was solid.

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Two of the FA Cup quarter-finals take place today with Arsenal playing Linclon and Middlesbro facing Manchester City.  Meanwhile, Hull are 6/4 to beat Swansea in the Premiership in a match they have to win - they look well worth a bet to me.

I was saddened to see that one of my sporting heroes, John Surtees passed away yesterday at the age of 83.  Surtees was the Formula One and Motor Cycling world champion - an achievement that I don't think we will see again.

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I have spent the last five years looking for my ex-wife's killer and I still can't find anyone to do it!  Have a nice weekend...

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