Out-Standing!

It was a good day for the yard at Wincanton's first jumps fixture of the season with a winner and a second from our only two runners.  A winner last week at Exeter, Standing Ovation (pictured above) appears to have improved again since then.  Jumping with more fluencey and travelling much more kindly yesterday in the first time cheekpieces, Conor O'Farrell found himself in front - a position that he never relinquished.  He looked to be idling throughout and perhaps won with slightly more in hand than the 1 1/2 length winning margin would suggest.  My Brother Sylvest ran a solid race to finish second on his return to hurdles.  Although on a favourable mark compared to his chase rating he was unable to concede 12lbs to last time out winner Alwaystheoptimist - it would appear that he is better over fences than timber.

It was a good day for the yard at Wincanton's first jumps fixture of the season with a winner and a second from our only two runners.  A winner last week at Exeter, Standing Ovation (pictured above) appears to have improved again since then.  Jumping with more fluencey and travelling much more kindly yesterday in the first time cheekpieces, Conor O'Farrell found himself in front - a position that he never relinquished.  He looked to be idling throughout and perhaps won with slightly more in hand than the 1 1/2 length winning margin would suggest.  My Brother Sylvest ran a solid race to finish second on his return to hurdles.  Although on a favourable mark compared to his chase rating he was unable to concede 12lbs to last time out winner Alwaystheoptimist - it would appear that he is better over fences than timber.

Cheltenham hosts their first fixture of the new season this afternoon and as you would expect, it is a good competitive card with over £109,000 in prize money up for grabs.  Included on the card is a Pertemps qualifier with twenty runners in it - they have changed the rules these days so that any horse that finishes in the first eight becomes eligible for the final at the Festival in March.  It used to be that any horse that ran in a qualifier (or was even declared in the case of abandonments) would be qualified for the final.  I would imagine that the market will be the best guide to finding the likeliest winner this afternoon.

The racecourse at Cheltenham will look more like a building site for the entire season as work has commenced on new spectating facilities.  The building that housed the Royal Box has been demolished and £45 million is being spent on renovations.  Make sure you have your hard hat on today if you are going racing (or borrow one of the jockeys!)...only joking!

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I am looking forward to seeing Newmarket trainer Ken Clutterbuck on Channel 4 reality show 4 In A Bed.  Ken also owns the Wheatsheaf in Exning.  The basis of the show is that 4 couples go to each others bed & breakfast and comment on cleanliness, service and food etc.  The winners get an award to stick on their wall and things can often get quite heated - I will look forward to seeing the Wheatsheaf programme which will be aired on Tuesday.

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Now the Internationals are over with, it is back to the Premier League and there look to be some banker home ties.  Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton and Manchester United all look like good things to me...It all looks too easy.  Sadly that is not a comment that applies to my beloved Hammers who have to take on Manchester City at 5.30pm on Saturday.