Punchestown Day Two

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Perth and Exeter, while there are flat cards from Epsom, Catterick and Lingfield and over in Ireland it is day two of the Punchestown Festival.  Tom Scudamore has picked up a couple of outside rides at Exeter today as he remains in search of his seasonal century.  He still needs three winners with four days remaining of the campaign...it is going to be close!

Fox Norton was the winner of the feature chase at Punchestown yesterday as he defeated Un de Sceaux in the Champion Chase - I did say he could prove dangerous so I hope a few of you backed him.  Jockey Robbie Power is going through an absolutely unbelievable spell at present and he could well follow-up in the feature today as he is aboard Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Sizing John in the big one.

Many happy returns to Ron Atkins who was one of Martin's first stable jockeys.  Ron is a great character and it was good to see him in our Cheltenham marquee last month.  He could tell a few stories and I reckon he could write a fantastic book!

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I have never seen such strange weather as we had yesterday.  One minute Mrs Barnes is sunbathing in the garden, the next minute it started snowing!  The weather that we really need at the moment is a drop of rain to ease the ground a bit, but of course we had none of that.

There was a good result for Chelsea last night as they bought themselves a bit of breathing room at the top of the Premiership by beating Southampton 4-2.  It was a very open match with Chelsea defending and then hitting on the counter attack.  They are  7 points ahead in the league and it looks to be in the bag.

The big match tonight is Crystal Palace versus Tottenham Hotspur with the kick-off at 8pm.  This looks like a tricky match to me but at the prices Palace may be worth a fun bet at 9/2 while Arsenal should win at 8/13.

I understand that boxer Tyson Fury is targeting a July return to the ring.  From what I saw of him in one of the local boozers, I would have thought he would need longer than that to get in shape!  Mind you, I wouldn't say that to his face!

I see that golf chiefs are trying to crack down on the use of replay technology to prevent a repeat of the Lexi Thompson fiasco.  She replaced the ball about an inch wide of the original spot.  Football are starting to use the technology but golf don't want it!

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Did you know that St Tropez has a topless beach?  There's no sand on it!

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