A Day to Look Forward To

 Kings Palace runs today at Cheltenham

Today we have five meetings, three on the flat at Ascot, Catterick and Wolverhampton and two jumps cards at Cheltenham and Kelso.  It is a fantastic flat card at Ascot, Champions day.  We have three Group 1 races plus a Group 2 and a Group 3.  The last race is for apprentice jockeys but even this handicap carries £50,000 in prize money.  The Cheltenham card over the stick is also a cracker.  The money race is the 3.45pm handicap chase over three miles with £50,00 in prize money up for grabs.  David has four runners at Cheltenham plus Seattle Drive running in the 3.55pm handicap hurdle at Kelso.  Seattle Drive his having his first run for the stable after being claimed off the flat.  It is his first run in a handicap having had three runs in Ireland so it wil be interesting to see how he gets on.  Mikey Ennis rides claimiing seven pounds off his back.  Meanwhile at Cheltenham, Kings Palace is our first runner in the 2.00pm race.  He has some useful bumper form and won nicely over hurdles at Fontwell last time despite running a bit green.  The third horse from that race ha come out and won since so the form looks solid.   This is a big step up in class so we will see how he gets on.  

Vif Argent is making his stable debut having some win and placed form over hurdles and fences in France.  He is a four year old so gets a nice weight allowance in this chase with Tom Scu riding at 10 stone.  Bygones Sovereign runs in the 4.25pm handicap hurdle which looks a very competitive event and Vazaro Delafayette is our final runner on the card in the Bumper.  He won an English point to pount at Larkhill so will be interesting to see how he gets on on his Pond House debut.

The Ascot card looks altra competitive as you would expect for Champions day and I am especially looking forward to seeing Cirrus Des Aigles running in the Group 1 Champion stakes.  I will be glued to all the action this afternoon!

In the football I find it hard to believe that Jose Mourinho is going to give Roy Hodgson some advice on how to win the World Cup, we must have a good chance now the special one is on our side?!

In golf - does money make any difference?  Rory McIlroy is the only player inside the top 100 taking part in the Korean Open.  Mind you, he is getting a million appearance fee!  When I was playing teble tennis I once got my train fare paid to play in the Lancashire Open!  Have a nice day.