Rain is coming...

         Palace Jester (near-side)

Today there are five meetings, two on the flat at Beverley and Chepstow and three jumps cards at Wincanton, Sedgefield and Southwell.  David runs Palace Jester in the 3.20pm at Wincanton.  On old form Palace Jester is well handicapped but he needs to improve on recent runs to figure in quite a competitive little race.  We are due quite a lot of rain in the west country this afternoon so keep an eye on what is happening if you are having a bet on the racing this afternoon as the going may change!  They are due up to an inch of rain at Wincanton later so it is nice weather for ducks and there could be a few non runners to look out for as well.  At Towcester yesterday Weather Babe was a bit disappointing and did not jump as well as she can while the Bumper horse, Knight of Noir ran a cracker.  He finished second to the Alan King trained Ulzanas Raid but our runner is from a staying family and will improve for a step up in distance.  He kept running all the way to the line and we were very pleased with his Pond House debut run and he is a chaser to look forward to in the future.

I saw a runner at Doncaster yesterday who was given a nice introduction to racing.  Orbison was never really put into the race and I am sure he will repay the kindness one day!

Here is a question.  Why have they had to miss a fence out at Sedgefield today?  Well I can tell you the answer.  There is a mallards nest under the fence and there are six eggs inside it.  Surely the jockey's could have scrambled over it?!  I had better stop doing those yokes!!

The good news is that AP looks like returning to the saddle on Friday at Aintree.  At the moment he is only 10 behind Jason Maguire in the jockeys championship!  That is not too many behind and he should be able to make that up in a week or two!  Talking of jockeys I see that it is Ruby Walsh's birthday today.  He is 34, although I thought he was older than that, he looks older than AP!  Happy Birthday Ruby.

Apparently Rooney could go to Bayern Munich.  We can hardly understand what he says so how will the Germans get on!  It is Arsenal versus Wigan at the Emirates tonight live on TV at 7.45pm.  This is more important than the cup final for Wigan and it should be a great watch.  Have a nice day.