One Runner At Cheltenham

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with flat cards from Newmarket, Ripon and Newcastle, supported by a jumps fixture from Cheltenham.  David has one runner today as Mechelen contests the 2m1f mares' bumper at 5.35pm.  It looks like a decent contest with a 'bumper' field of 20 runners, so it is very competitive.  Mechelen produced a sound debut effort when runner-up at Taunton on heavy ground on her only start to date.  There are plenty in there with good form so she looks to have place claims at odds of around 20/1.  Tom Scudamore is in the saddle.  Tom also has an outside ride on the favourite earlier on the card, although at 6/1 I'm not sure I would want to be piling on...sorry Tom!

Considering it is a midweek card, Cheltenham have put up some good prize money for their two day fixture.  Both Taj Badalandabad (fourth in the staying handicap hurdle) and Dell' Arca (third in the staying handicap chase) ran creditably, picking up a share of the pot.

After racing at Cheltenham, David participated in the half-time jockeys versus trainers penalty shoot-out competition at the charity football match in aid of the Injured Jockeys' Fund.  I am told that David fared okay, scoring one goal and having another saved by the Mansfield Town keeper.

We are back from our latest trip to Lambourn now and I have to admit, I am knackered!  We visited legendary jockey John Francome yesterday and had a great time.  John (pictured above) is naturally a very funny person.  He is just one of those people who amuses others effortlessly without even trying.  Furthermore, he is just like Peter Pan - he never seems to get any older! Clive Cox trains in Francome's back garden and he is another chatty chap.  After that we dropped in on Owen Burrows, who used to ride as a conditional jockey for Martin.  Owen (pictured below) is doing nicely, training from a yard built by the Sheikh's and that is who he is training for now.  I need a few days now to recover.

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Manchester United beat Bournemouth 2-0 last night and Paul Pogba had a hand in both goals but he is still getting stick from the papers and former United players...Paul Scholes reckons that his time with United could be over this summer.  Meanwhile Burnley play Chelsea tonight and you can back Burnley at 7/2 and they look worth an interest.  What a job Sean Dyche has done at Burnley.  I think they will Burnley will do well to keep hold of him before one of the bigger, sexier clubs comes knocking for him.

A dwarf was pick-pocketed in Brixham the other day.  How could they stoop so low?!  Have nice day...

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