Taj Bids To Follow-Up

Today there are six meetings taking place, four on the flat at Catterick, Haydock, Goodwood and Beverley as well as National Hunt cards from Cartmel and Ffos Las.  The stable has one runner in the closing bumper at Ffos Las; Taj Badalandabad (pictured above) who is already a course winner since arriving at Pond House.  Runner-up in an Irish point-to-point, he won on his debut for the stable when winning a 1m6f bumper at the Welsh track despite showing distinct signs of inexperience.  With that run under his belt and the step up in trip likely to suit, he should take plenty of beating under Tom Scudamore, even under a penalty.

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There is potentially a £15million jackpot up for grabs this afternoon if you can get the winner of all six of the Scoop6 races.  If you are still in the running after the fifth leg, there is the small matter of the seventeen runner Silver Bowl at Haydock standing between you and a life changing amount of cash.  I have had a look through the race and typically it is extremely competitive - for what it is worth, if I was nailed down to one selection in the race it would be James Fanshawe's Hors de Combat who looked an improving sort when winning at Newmarket last time.  Good luck if you are having a go at the Scoop6 today.

There is some excellent racing taking place in Ireland as well this afternoon, the highlight of which is obviously the Irish 2,000 Guineas.  Kingman, who was runner up in the Newmarket version, is odds-on with most bookmaking firms - if he runs to form he should win this for trainer John Gosden.

I see that Wetherby are galloping horses around the bends and up the straight next month to test the track.  They are applying to have a licence for flat racing at the course, although I would have thought that we surely have enough flat tracks already.  To my mind, Wetherby will always be one of those old fashioned jumping tracks.

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There is an important football match taking place this afternoon between Derby and QPR.  It is worth £120 million as the two team meet in a play-off to try to get back into the Premier League.  It should be an interesting clash too between managers Redknapp and McClaren.  QPR have a wealth of experienced players and you can expect plenty of fight from Joey Barton and the rest of his big earning team-mates.  Derby County have a young and inexperienced team and might just freeze on the big day.  Personally I think whoever makes it into the top flight will struggle - there seems to be an enormous gap between the two divisions.

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