Welsh National Day

  Goulanes - runs in the Welsh National

Today there are four meetings on, three over the sticks at Chepstow, Newbury, and Catterick plus a flat card at Lingfield.  David has one runner at Newbury in the 1.15pm, Shaking Hands.  He was disappointing on his seasonal reappearance but he won't mind the ground and Tom Bellamy takes a handy 7 pounds off his back.  David has six runners at Chepstow.  Tullyesker Hill kicks things off in the first race, a maiden hurdle.  He won a bumper impressively on his stable debut at Plumpton and finished fourth at Warwick last time.  This looks a competitive race so it will be interesting to see how he gets on.  We have three runners in the big race, the Coral Welsh National at 2.35pm.  Goulanes, Amigo and Ace High are the Pond House trio and all would have small chances.  This will be a real stamina test running over 3m5f on heavy ground and I would not think there will be many finishers.  All of ours should handle the ground so we shall just have to keep our fingers crossed!  This prestigious race, used to be Bonanza Boys race.  He was only small but he had a big heart.  This race also probably saw the best ever handicap performance by a horse.  Carvills Hill carried top weight to win in great style in 1991 and I think this will probably never be matched.

Poole Master and Vif Argent complete the stable runners in the handicap chase.  Both are looking to improve on recent form but again both should handle the gorund which will be a real help this afternoon.  

The story of the day from yesterday was of course Sprinter Sacre being pulled up at Kempton.  Barry Geraghty pulled the champ up very quickly after he thought somethig was amiss which was good.  He has come back sound but was discovered to have an irregular heart beat.  Let's just hope they can get to the bottom of the problem as he undergoes some tests at Newmarket today so we can see him on the racecourse again soon.  Racing needs super stars like him.

In the football.  Malky Mackay has been sacked as Cardiff manager.  Now, five managers from the bottom six clubs have been sacked this season.  Only Sam Allardyce has managed to keep his job at West Ham although I bet he is having some sleepless nights!  They are talking about Malky Mackay taking over at West Brom.  I think that would be a great move for them if they could get him as manager. 

It was another terrible batting performance by the England cricket team.  They were all out for 179.  I think this could be the worst England team ever.

My football treble today are West Ham, Man Utd & Chesterfield.  Have a nice day.