Imperial Cup Day

Although there are only three days until the start of the Cheltenham Festival, there is still an abundance of good racing taking place today including the Imperial Cup at Sandown.  As well as Sandown there are two other jumps meetings at Chepstow and Ayr and an all-weather flat card at Wolverhampton.  The stable is represented by Swing Bowler and Baltimore Rock (pictured above) in the big race and I'm sure David (and a few other trainers) will be eyeing the £100,000 bonus up for grabs for any horse winning this race and then following up at next week's Festival.  Martin completed the double with Olympian and Blowing Wind, while David also achieved it in his first season with a licence courtesy of Gaspara.

We have two very promising runners in the EBF Final at 2.05pm in Doctor Harper and Knight Of Noir and we will be hoping for big runs from both. Meanwhile, over at Chepstow we have one runner in Consigliere.  Our grand old veteran certainly deserves to get his head in front having finished runner-up on his last couple of starts - let's hope it is a good day and David can go into Cheltenham week on the back of a winner or two following the disappointing news yesterday that high class novice hurdler Un Temps Pour Tout is unlikely to make the Festival.

I enjoyed the brief interview with Tom Scu in the Racing Post today about his Cheltenham recollections.  The best bit though was when he was asked what is his best hope for the meeting this year - Tom replied 'every horse I ride!'  That's right Tom, tell them everything!  Talk about playing your cards close to your chest!

Just think, this time next week the Festival will be all over for another year and the focus will switch to the Grand National meeting at Aintree.  It seems that the entire season is geared around these two big meetings which take part within a month of each other.  The earlier you get a winner at Cheltenham, the less pressure there is on the trainer - we have a hospitality marquee with around 150 people in it each day and I can tell you, the atmosphere changes as soon as you get a winner on the board - let's hope David can land an early victory this year - that way we can hit the bar straight away!

*****

My little football treble today will be Brentford at 8/13, Scunthorpe at 5/6 and Manchester United at 5/6 - hopefully that will put a few quid in the old war chest ahead of next week!

*****

Finally, in the next instalment of our video interviews with Mike Vince, we catch up with Pond House jockeys Tom Bellamy and Mikey Ennis as they look forward to next week's Cheltenham Festival and give you their fancies.

Tom Bellamy and Mikey Ennis talk to Mike Vince about their hopes and fancies ahead of the 2014 Cheltenham Festival

?