Barton Bolts Up!

It was another good day for the stable at Stratford yesterday as Barton Stacey bolting up by eleven lengths in the 2m4f novices' handicap chase.  Our nine year old certainly appeared to like this quicker ground and he looks like he could be placed to follow-up before too long.  I wonder what the handicapper will do with him?  He has an official handicap mark of 114 and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see David turn him out again under a penalty.  David is currently operating at a 41% strike rate and I reckon he should get the stable cat entered up as it would appear that he could win with just about anything at present!

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon, four on the flat at Redcar, Southwell, Windsor and Leicester as well as a National Hunt fixture at Towcester.  The stable has two runners at Towcester; The Darling Boy and Top Wood and I am particularly looking forward to seeing the latter makes his chase debut this afternoon.  Top Wood was a decent hurdler with a mark of 136 and he handles any type of ground - he looks the type to make up into a very nice chaser, particularly at this stage of the season.  Tom Scu is riding out of his skin at present (second only to McCoy in the jockeys' table) and he takes the ride aboard both of our runners today.

Many happy returns to owner Peter Deal who is 75 today.  Peter (pictured right, second from the right) has long been a patron of the yard here at Pond House and has enjoyed great success down the years with the likes of Champion Hurdler Make A Stand, dual Cheltenham Festival winner Blowing Wind and Chester Cup winner Mamlook.  I reckon it is his lovely wife Pam that keeps Peter looking so young!  Many happy returns Peter.

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I see that punter Joe McGuire had to have a vindaloo and a pint of larger after his selection finished second in the final leg of Saturday's Scoop 6.  He was a former jockey and laid out only £8.  A real pity for him, but it does mean that the jackpot rolls over for another week and gives the rest of us another chance to scoop the prize.

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What an exciting finisht to the FA Cup Final with Arsenal prevailing 3-2 over Hull after extra time.  Unless they make some radical changes during the off-season though, I cannot see this Arsenal side challenging for the Premiership on this performance.  It seems that all of the top teams are in desperate need of full backs and centre halves and if I were one of the top managers I would be looking to sign Hull's Curtis Davies.  He looks like a quality centre back and the likes of Arsenal and Manchester United could certainly do with him.  Even at this early stage, I cannot see beyond Manchester City or Chelsea for next season's Premier League.

I was surprised to see that newly promoted Leicester are going to sign Brighton defender Matt Upson on a free transfer.  At 35 this former West Ham centre back is well past his sell by date.

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