The Week Ahead

Taking a look at the week ahead, if you are planning to take a trip to Kempton this afternoon, it would be well worth having a look at Robert Thornton's race riding master class and book signing.  On Tuesday Exeter play host to their Haldon Gold Cup fixture which is almost certain to attract a good field - I was amazed to think that it is ten years since Best Mate won the race.  More recently we landed the contest with Pablo du Charmil in 2007.

Don't forget that David's stable tour will appear in tomorrow's edition of the Racing Post.  I always enjoy keeping the stable tours from the various yards and looking back at the end of the season to see how accurate the trainers comments are.  There is normally a horse to follow, and a dark horse so it should certainly be worth a good read.

I see Carlisle will host a darts challenge on Thursday with Peter Manley and the queen of darts, Anastasia Dobromyslova.  I don't think that I would like to compere that match, by the time I would have managed to get my tongue around that surname the match would probably be finished!

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I was wondering why Michael Hills was riding at Woodbine in Canada last night...until I saw the prize money.  With £205,000 to the winning horse, that would make for a decent pay day - let's hope that he gets a fair share of the pot.