7 Runners at Exeter, Sandown

Today there are three meetings taking place - two over the jumps at Sandown and Exeter as well as an all-weather flat card at Lingfield.  The stable has two runners at Sandown - Starlife who will be partnered by young Kieron Edgar who takes a handy 10lbs off her back and Tanerko Emery (pictured above) who will be ridden by Conor O'Farrell.  Meanwhile, we will be busy at Exeter where we have five runners - Kilrye, Home Run, Shaking Hands, Diamond Life and Storm Lantern.  The stable has been in good form, especially our bumper horses so let's hope that newcomer Storm Lantern can maintain the trend on his first start for the yard.

Talking of Shaking Hands, he participates in the four mile handicap chase at Exeter this afternoon.  On a stiff track like Exeter on testing ground, it looks like being a real battle of attrition.  Our gelding ran over hurdles last time but is switched back to the larger obstacles today which should prove no problem to him.  He has had plenty of practice back over fences as you can see from the below short video...

Shaking Hands Fences from David Pipe on Vimeo.

I thought that Top Wood ran a much better race to finish a close third at Wincanton yesterday afternoon under Hadden Frost.  He stayed on well once headed and was only beaten a length, shaping as though a step-up in trip might benefit him.  This was also the race in which Daryl Jacob picked up a ten day ban for not riding his mount out to the finish having mistaken the winning line.  Personally I didn't think that it made any difference to the result and a ten day suspension looks harsh...on the plus side though at least Jacob will be able to indulge in a little festive food and drink over the Christmas period!

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I always thought that Graham Gooch was the finest English batsman I had ever seen but the statistics tell a different story.  Alastair Cook has now notched up an incredible 23 centuries and is also the youngest batsman ever to reach 7,000 runs at international level.  I guess he gets overlooked because he is not spectacular at the crease, he just goes about his job in a quiet way.  By the way, he's another Essex boy!

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There were good results for the English football teams in Europe last night as both Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool won.  The best result was probably Liverpool, who managed to beat Udinese 1-0 away from home, so well done to them!

I see that QPR have cancelled their Christmas Dinner as they have nothing to celebrate, while Martin O'Neill is hosting the Sunderland bash.  That should be a bundle of fun...I can't imagine O'Neill dressed up as Father Christmas!