Virtuel Victorious!

There are just three meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards (pending inspections) from Exeter and Bangor as well as an all-weather flat card from Wolverhampton.  The stable has four runners at Exeter; Herbert Park, Alezanna, Flabello and Kalifourchon.  Herbert Park certainly looks like a promising individual - he ran a good race to finish runner-up on his racecourse debut at Chepstow before going one better at the same course last time and once again seems to have sound claims on his hurdling debut under Tom Scudamore.  Meanwhile former flat winner Alezanna makes her debut for the stable this afternoon, I just hope the ground does not come up too heavy for them.

It looks like I picked the right place to go on Saturday as I was on hand to greet our winner Virtuel d'Oudon in the staying handicap hurdle at Taunton.  With two thirds and a fourth, the runners performed with credit and our winner jumped and battled really well under a good ride from conditional jockey Kieron Edgar.  What a day for his owner Steve Quinlan with his team Wigan also getting a point - it is almost like winning the lottery!

I saw owner Alan Kaplan at the races on Saturday and I thought that his Softsong ran a nice race on his chasing debut.  I haven't seen Alan in years and it was great to catch up - he looks a little bit older than the last time I saw him, although his lovely wife hasn't aged at all.  Anyway, there certainly appear to be races to be won with Softsong.

I was a little disappointed by the performance of Sprinter Sacre on Saturday at Ascot.  With the hype surrounding him suggesting that he was back to his very best, I was hoping for more.  He still attained a very decent level of form and has fair claims in the Champion Chase at Cheltenham, but his performance at the weekend was about 2 stone shy of his best and while he may improve significantly for the run, he will need to to reclaim his crown.

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There was a strange football match at the weekend as Hull outplayed my beloved West Ham during the first half of their match, yet ended up losing 3-0...not that I am complaining!  It is lucky that Kevin Nolan is a mate of Big Sam's as to my mind, he certainly isn't Premiership standard any more.  There was another peculiar result as Arsenal beat Manchester City 2-0 despite City having most of the play.  It's a funny old game!

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I don't suppose golfer Martin Kaymer was laughing after blowing a ten shot lead in Abu Dhabi.  He was 1/500 to win in play, yet Gary Stal, a Frenchman shot a round of 65 to come through and claim his first tour victory.

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In the cricket there was an amazing innings from South African De Villiers who scored 149 runs from just 44 balls.  With sixteen sixes it was the fastest century in one day history coming from just 31 deliveries.  Lots of runs and not a load of balls!

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Finally, I understand that a horse caused chaos on the M25 by galloping along the motorway.  Speaking from experience, I would imagine that the horse was about the only thing that was moving on the M25!  Fortunately he was caught in the end.