Newbury Runners

There are four meetings this afternoon with jump racing action coming from Doncaster and Newbury and all-weather flat meetings at Lingfield and Wolverhampton.  The stable has four runners at Newbury this afternoon - SIr Frank, Bladoun, Off The Wall and Midnight Tuesday.  Sir Frank (pictured above) looks interesting in the novices' chase having run a good race in defeat at Huntingdon last time out. Young conditional jockey Kieron Edgar keeps the ride and claims a handy 7lbs off his back.

There is a very good card at Doncaster this afternoon and amazingly they have a claiming hurdle at the meeting.  I remember when they used to hold a claimer at the Grand National meeting at Aintree.  They are always interesting affairs and we have claimed more than a few good ones from such races through the years, well I have...I'm not so sure about MCP (only joking)!

I thought that Garryleigh ran a decent race when second behind odds-on favourite Fox Run at Taunton yesterday afternoon on only his second run back after an absence and he should be capable of winning before too long, possibly on better ground.

On the same card I was amused to see Benedictus score in the Hunters' Chase - as there is a new Pope, I wouldn't be at all surprised if this one received a blessing from Rome!

Unsurprisingly everyone is asking where David's easy Warwick winner Ballynagour is going to run at the Cheltenham Festival.  Well, I can quite understand why David is committing him to any specific race at this stage - it is important that he chooses the race where he has the best chance of winning.  When quizzed about it yesterday, even owner Allan Stennett said "I'm not sure he will be running in the Byrne Group Plate".

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I see that former Chelsea managerJose Mourinho is now only 11/8 to become the Blues Boss again.  Maybe Mr Abramovich has tried to have a cheeky £20 million on at 7/2 to balance the books?!

Apparently Sir Alex Ferguson wants to become a director at Manchester United when he retires from the manager's job in about 10 years time.  He will be a hard act to follow...especially as he will be looking over the manager's shoulder from a directors chair!