Cheltenham 4 Timer!

What an amazing day for the stable yesterday with a near 6,000/1 four-timer at the final day of The Open meeting at Cheltenham.  Home Run beat stablemate Western Warhorse for a 1-2 in the opening race, the winner obliging at odds of 40/1 under Kieron Edgar!  The last time I remember a horse winning at that sort of price from the stable was Baron Blakeney at 66/1!  The Liquidator looked very impressive in landing the Grade Two novices' hurdle by fifteen lengths - his nearest rival Sea Lord may not have run to the best of his form, but he can do little more than beat what is put in front of him - he looks to be potentially top class.

The highlight of the day though was undoutedly the success of Dell'Arca (pictured right) in the valuable Greatwood Hurdle.  He was an expensive purchase from the Arqana sales at €280,000, but is now looking well worth the asking price with the first £57,000 of his asking price now paid off!  He is still eligible for novices' races (this was unbelievably only his fourth start over hurdles) and he could be even better on softer ground.

David topped and tailed the card and closed with the poignant success of Red Sherlock in the bumper in the colours of the late and very much missed David Johnson.  Timmy Murphy gave him a canny ride to prevail by 1 1/2 lengths - he has done plenty of schooling with him at home and he looks another very exciting prospect for the stable once sent hurdling.  So Sunday's get much better?!

Finally, over at Fontwell I thought that Alderluck ran a sound race to finish fourth in the Southern National, not beaten at all far and there could be another marathon handicap in him this term.

Today we have three meetings to look forward - three over the sticks at Leicester and Plumpton, as well as an all-weather flat card at Wolverhampton.  Tullyesker Hill represents the yard at Plumpton - he was a winner of a point-to-point on good ground and looks likely to be sent off at short odds to keep the good form of the yard going under Tom Scudamore.

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I see that Paul Nicholls has a runner today called V Neck - I understand it is a good jumper!  I know, it is terrible but it is a Monday morning afterall!

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Crystal Palace are only offering £500,000 per year in wages.  So, that is about £10,000 per week...hardly worth getting out of bed for!  It never ceases to amaze me how much some of these players are being paid - footballers just don't seem to live in the real world.

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Henrik Stenson was the winner of the World Tour Championship golf at the weekend.  He also managed to win $100 from Ian Poulter.  Stenson said that there was mor pressure on winning the side bet than landing the tournament, mind you he did say that he hadn't beaten paid yet!  Poulter also had to play waiter for the evening.