Three Runners Today

Today there are three meetings taking place - two over the sticks at Exeter and Kempton and an all-weather flat card at Southwell.  The stable has runners at both jumps fixtures; Virtuel d'Oudon and Barton Stacey at Exeter and Bygones Sovereign at Kempton.  Virtuel d'Oudon (pictured above) has proven to be another shrewd buy by David, scoring on both of his starts (a bumper and a hurdle) since joining the stable.  He has a penalty to carry this afternoon which will make life harder, but he has a good attitude and looks sure to go well again - he will be ridden by Tom Scudamore who is still looking for those elusive two winners to reach the magical ton for the first time.

I have to say that I have been very impressed by lady jockey Lucy Alexander of late.  She has been riding quite a few winners recently and beat A P McCoy in a finish yesterday afternoon at Hexham.

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Let's hope that Mark Perrett makes a speedy recovery from a nasty fall on the gallops at Coombelands Stables on Wednesday.  Mark is one of the few jockeys to have ridden a Cheltenham Festival winner and a Royal Ascot winner - he did this for MCP aboard Balasani.  Not only was Mark a very good jockey, he is also a thoroughly nice chap.  We hope that he is soon on the mend.

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I see that it is assistant Oliver Defew's 33rd birthday today.  Oliver used to ride David's 2008 Grand National winner Comply Or Die in all of his work at home.  The trouble with Oliver is that he is an ardent Norwich City football fan and that tells you all you need to know about his sporting knowledge!  Only joking Oliver, have a great day!

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Spurs have Jurgen Klopp top of their list for the manager's position.  I can already see the headlines...it will be 'Spurs Flog Under Jurgen Klopp!'  As far as I can tell they will never get into the top four of the Premiership with their current team of players no matter who is managing them.  Give Sherwood a fair crack of the whip!

There is a great night of football ahead with Arsenal taking on the mighty Hammers on Sky at 7.45pm.  My poor wife will be missing her soaps again.

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Corals have taken the unusual step of pricing up a Grand Slam victor in the golf after Bubba Watson's success in the US Masters golf at the weekend.  The bookmakers make him a 2000/1 chance for the Slam this year.  I cannot believe that anyone would be interested in taking those odds!  I thought that Jimenez played fantastically well to finish fourth at the age of 50...another old timer who excelled himself was Freddie Couples.  Maybe there is hope for me yet?!

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