Good Friday

                 Shoegazer

There is no racing today, not even in Ireland so a day of rest for all punters!  It is not a day of rest for stable staff however as the horses still have to be fed and exercised and everyone is here busy in the yard.  There are several meetings tomorrow, including three jumps cards at Haydock, Carlisle and Newton Abbot.  David has entries at Haydock and local track Newton Abbot where they are giving the ground as heavy and will be omitting the last hurdle.  We have had no rain down here for a few days, I just wonder if it will as heavy as forecast?  They have a £25,000 chase on the card which has attracted all the big trainers, including Donald McCain.  I would not think he has ever had many runners at Newton.  David already has Shoegazer declared in the feature chase at Haydock tomorrow.  He has won five of his 12 starts over fences and was a nice winner at Fontwell on his penultimate start before running a good race to finish seventh at the Cheltenham Festival last time.  He has to carry top weight tomorrow with AP on board but he should hopefully run well again.

Qalinas ran another sound race to finish second at Ffos Las yesterday.  The winner Bobowen looked well treated on old form off a mark of 125 and remember Qalinas went up 11 pounds for his last win at Taunton so it was a good performance.  Thomas Junior was also a good second on his first ever racecourse outing.  He is a lovely big horse who looked a bit green and will only improve with time.

AP won another two Lesters last night and has now won 20 of them!  Most of my table tennis trophies are in the loft.  I wonder what AP does with his Lesters?!  I just bet he is not the one who cleans them!

Can you believe that Czech golfer Jakub Svobora was 21 over par after just 6 holes in the Hassan Trophy.  He carried 4 sevens and 2 nines.  He eventually withdrew with a wrist injury, or did he just run out of lead in his pencil?!

Why don't lobsters share?  They're shellfish! Have a nice day.