Three Runners Today

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Wincanton, Sedgefield and Southwell, while there are flat fixtures from Chepstow and Beverley.  The Pond House team has two runners at Wincanton and another at Southwell.  Celestial Path (pictured above) takes in the 2m5½f handicap hurdle at Wincanton at 3.20pm - he was a smart flat horse but is yet to show that level over timber.  Hopefully the step-up in trip will bring about some improvement.  Shell Crystal goes in the bumper at 4.50pm - she is a well bred filly but would need to improve on her only start to date to figure in what looks a decent contest.  Tom Scudamore is aboard our Wincanton pair.  Over at Southwell, Ilovemints runs in the 2m4½f mares' handicap hurdle.  She won a bumper at Bangor and produced her best effort over hurdles to date when third at Chepstow on heavy ground.  She should go well under David Noonan.

It was a day to forget for Tom Scudamore yesterday at Kempton.  He was due to pick up three outside rides, but the best of those (an odds-on shot) was withdrawn just 21 minutes before the race, while his other two mounts resulted in a unseat and a pulled up.  Let's hope for better today.

I was asked to participate in a radio interview yesterday afternoon for a local station about all the recent fighting that has been going on at the likes of Goodwood and Ascot.  While it is an unusual occurrence (unless of course it is ladies' day at Aintree and the girls have had one too many!), it is gaining a lot of publicity.  It even appeared on the BBC news at 10pm.  Sadly not the sort of publicity that racing needs.

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I see that Chelsea want Mauricio Pochettino as their next boss.  That will upset a lot of my Spurs supporting mates!  At least they would give him the money he craves to spend on players.  Maybe this will wake the Spurs board and force them into putting their hands in their pockets.  So far they have only given their manager a Bentley car and that is not going to help their defencs much (unless they park it in front of the goal!).

Caddy Paul Tesori was paid £140,000 for carrying Webb Simpson's bag at the Players' Championship.  That is only £7,000 less than Joakim Lagergren received for winning the Sicilian Open on the same day.  If only I was a bit bigger and stronger, a caddy's life would do for me.  Meanwhile, all his money could not stop Rory McIlroy from finding the water on the Island hole to miss the cut.

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Alcohol...because no good story ever started with someone eating a salad!

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