General Goes To Goodwood

There are six meetings taking place this afternoon with flat action from Newmarket, Goodwood, Thirsk and Doncaster, while there are jumps fixtures from Uttoxeter and Haydock. David has a rare runner at Goodwood on the flat this afternoon as recent Cheltenham charity race winner Three Star General runs in the 1m6f handicap at 1.35pm. He had some fair form on the level in Ireland for Aiden O'Brien and ran well on his hurdles debut at Ascot before winning at Cheltenham. Pat Dobbs is in the saddle and I thought that he had sound each way claims.

The big fixture of the day is undoubtedly at Newmarket where the first Classic, the 2,000 Guineas takes place this afternoon at 3.35pm.  There are only ten runners and one of them has not run so far this season - yes, you guessed it, favourite Winston Churchill for Aiden O'Brien.  The gallops are so good at the trainers' establishments these days that they can get them fit enough to do the job at home.  Ryan Moore in the saddle is a big plus and he looks sure to take all the beating based on last year's outstanding juvenile form.

I see that all 26 jockeys who were involved in the false starts in the Grand National have been handed one day bans.  I can never understand why they want to go off so fast in a 4m2 1/2f race.  Mind you, in this day and age I would have thought they could have come up with a better way of starting a race than with a piece of elastic.

What a result for West Ham last night as they beat Spurs!  I hope a few of you followed me - 7/1 was a big price.  The Hammers defence had the Tottenham attack in their pocket all night and I didn't even realise that Harry Kane was playing.  The only thing is that it means the Premiership is looking increasingly one-sided.

Today I will be having a little wager on Bournemouth at 5/4 to beat Stoke and I will be doubling them with Leicester at 8/13 to beat Watford.  That should allow us to eat in the Barnes' household next week!

I was taking a look through the rich list and there was not one racing name among them.  There were no fewer than six footballers on the list with Zlatan Ibrahimovic top of those with a cool £110 million.

I have a friend who is very talkative when he goes up mountains - he is a social climber!  Have a nice weekend...

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