Across The Card Double

It was a good day for the stable yesterday afternoon with an across the card double courtesy of Miss Tynte at Ludlow and Timeforben at Kempton.  Miss Tynte bolted up at Ludlow under David Noonan.  She certainly looked to be helped by the first time blinkers and the step up in trip.  She is in again later in the week and would only have a 6lbs penalty - it will be interesting to see what the trainer does with her, but she certainly looks to be on the upgrade now.  Over at Kempton, Timeforben showed a tenacious attitude to hold on in a close finish under Daryl Jacob.  It was a decent looking race with plenty of winners behind her and Daryl Jacob thinks she will be even better on a sounder surface, something that is backed up by her good ground Irish point-to-point success.

Dauphine Ereine also ran a cracker on her first start in almost 600 days to finish second in the three mile handicap chase at Ludlow.  Our half-sister to Dynaste travelled very well throughout and would have been closer but for a mistake at the penultimate fence.  A return to shorter would not inconvenience and there are plenty of races in her judged on this evidence.

This afternoon there are four meetings taking place with jumps cards from Hexham, Hereford and Southwell, while there is an all-weather flat fixture from Wolverhampton.  Stable jockey Tom Scudamore goes all the way up to Hexham for one ride for his brother and I wouldn't mind having a go at the 'one ride theory' today!

I was amused to watch Martin's interview with Luke Harvey on Attheraces yesterday afternoon.  I particularly liked the story about Luke riding one winner for him and when he phoned up for another ride, Martin said we would keep his strike rate at 100% - 1 win from 1 ride!

The answers to yesterday's quiz:

* What was the largest number of runners to contest the Grand National?  66

* What was the smallest number of runners to contest the Grand National?  10

* Which canal runs past Aintree and gives the Canal Turn it's name?  Leeds to Liverpool Canal

On to today's questions:

* Who was the first lady to complete the Grand National course?

* Which lady has come closest to winning the Grand National and what was the name of the horse?

* What was the name of the 51 year old grandmother who finished fifth on Fiddler's Pike in 1994?

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Manchester City play Liverpool tonight at 7.45pm on BT Sport in the second leg of their Champion's League quarter final.  There will be some goals as Liverpool are 3-0 up after the first leg.  City need to score 4 goals or more and are 1/2 to win - that is probably a reasonable bet, although 4 goals looks to be a tall order.  Meanwhile, Wigan look worth an interest at 21/20 to beat Rochdale.

Masters golf winner Patrick Reed says that Rory McIlroy lost his bottle after his final round of erratic putting.  He says McIlroy (already a multiple Major winner) couldn't handle the pressure.  In response, McIlroy said that he would be back to win at Augusta, although if he carries on putting like he did, he will never win there.  Don't forget that with all of the rain that had fallen, the greens were the easiest they have been for years.

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I phone up the weak bladder helpline today.  The receptionist said, "Can you hold for a minute?".  I said, 'No!".  Keep smiling...

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