Path To Kempton

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Perth, Warwick and Kempton as well as flat cards from Beverley and Chelmsford City.  Meanwhile, it is day three of the Punchestown Festival over in Ireland with another £628,000 in prize money up for grabs.  David has one runner at Kempton; Celestial Path (pictured above) who contests the 2m conditional jockeys' handicap hurdle at 4.45pm.  He has some fair bits of form over timber, but nothing to suggest that he will be replicating his good flat form.  He hasn't convinced with his stamina as yet, so the good/firm ground on a sharp track could be the answer.  Lorcan Murtagh takes the mount and hopefully he will go well.

River Dun ran a cracker at Taunton last night to finish a close third in the mares' handicap hurdle under amateur jockey Rex Dingle.  She was only beaten four lengths and I thought that this was her best run to date.  She should be capable of winning something similar based on this effort.

What an incredible day for Willie Mullins at Punchestown yesterday as the pendulum for the trainers' title in Ireland swung firmly in his direction.  He started the day over €400,000 behind rival Gordon Elliott but finished over €48,000 in front after saddling six winners and is now 1/8 to retain his championship.  Sir Anthony McCoy told me that Willie would win and it looks as though he is going to be right (for a change!).

I see that it is one of Martin's old jockeys birthday today.  Ron Atkins is 75 and he is doing very well on it.  Ron drops into the marquee at the Cheltenham Festival every year for a catch-up and he doesn't change at all.  I would love some of the pills that he is on!  He was a very good jockey with some great stories to tell...many happy returns Ron.

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Arsenal take on Athletico Madrid tonight on BT Sport at 8.05pm.  You can back the Gunners at 13/8 and that may be worth a punt when you consider that Madrid will have several of their key players missing.  Talking of Arsenal, I see that manager Arsene Wenger is only going to get an £11 million pay-off so he is going to have to find another job quickly!  Do I sound sarcastic?

New claims suggest that hundreds of tennis matches are fixed.  A two year review says that as many as three matches a day are not all they seem which sounds unbelievable to me.  Mind you, the report cost £15 million which also sounds unbelievable!

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As you know, I am a keen golfer so I was surprised to see a golf buggy parked in the disable bay outside of Torquay Hospital yesterday.  As I drove past, I wondered what his handicap was!  Have a nice day...

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