Great Jumping Action!

There's a busy day in store with no less than six meetings taking place with flat cards from Doncaster, Newbury and Wolverhampton, while there are also National Hunt fixtures at Aintree, Chepstow and Stratford.  There is some very good prize money on offer at Aintree and Chepstow and the stable has two runners at the Welsh track with Vieux Lion Rouge(pictured above) taking in the Silver Trophy handicap hurdle and Poole Master competing in the handicap chase.  Both races have in excess of £20,000 to the winner so unsurprisingly they are extremely competitive - I thought they both had each way squeaks in tough races.

Yesterday's runner Broadway Buffalo finished fourth at Fakenham in the novices' chase and I thought he ran pretty well.  It was a hot race for the track and he jumped better than he had done on his two previous starts over fences.  He looks as though he would appreciate a stiffer track and he should be more than capable of landing races in this sphere.

It is good to see champion jockey A P McCoy back in the saddle at Chepstow this afternoon with a couple of rides for his boss J P McManus - they both look to have sound chances, although right now I bet he would settle for a couple of clear rounds!  Meanwhile, our stable jockey Tom Scu continues to pick up some nice outside rides for Rebecca Curtis - he has four for the Welsh handler this afternoon and they also appear to have sound claims.

I will be glued to the television this afternoon as my beloved West Ham take on Manchester City at 12.45pm - the Hammers are scoring some goals at the moment so might be worth a look at odds of around 11/2, although I am probably being sentimental!  I will be having a little treble on Liverpool at 9/20 (surely they can beat Hull?), Southampton at 8/13 and Swansea at 19/20.

The big game of the weekend is Manchester United versus Chelsea on Sunday at 4pm.  Poor Mrs Barnes is really out of luck this weekend with all of the top quality sporting action on the box!

While we are on the subject of football I see that former England star Gazza was carted off to hospital at 3am following another bender.  He has been in hospital on seven occasions battling his drink and drug addiction.  It is terribly sad to see him in such a state, but he has to want to help himself before much can be done to help him.

I see a sky diver jumped 26 miles in 4 1/2 miles - that is about the speed I used to collect my winning bets!

Finally, a good one for the staff in the office at the yard...'The trouble with being punctual is there is rarely anyone there to appreciate it!'  David will like that one, have a nice weekend...