- Monday, 11 January 2016 08:28
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
I was amused to see former jump jockey turned television pundit Mick Fitzgerald finish runner-up on Celebrity Mastermind on Saturday. It was a good effort from Fitzy who picked up £3,000 for the Injured Jockeys' Fund and then promptly nominated Tom Scudamore as somebody else who would do well on the show. I must be missing something with Tom...I will be throwing a few questions his way the next time I see him!
- Saturday, 09 January 2016 09:29
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
Well it is certainly going to be a quiet day with just one all-weather flat meeting taking place at Southwell. If you are missing a bit of jumps action there is a good card taking place at Fairyhouse in Ireland this afternoon with a £100,000 handicap chase at 2.20pm. The meeting is covered by Attheraces so I will be watching that while flicking between football matches - Mrs Barnes will be pleased to hear that! I wonder why the BHA didn't try to put on one of those all-weather jumps cards - they do not take long to organise and quite a few trainers would like to give their horses a good blow-out.
- Saturday, 09 January 2016 08:13
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
Well today we hopefully have three meetings with jump action set to take place from Chepstow and Kempton while there is an all-weather flat meeting at Lingfield. Given the rain we have had down this way, I still can't believe that Chepstow is going to get the go ahead - there will certainly be some slow motion finishes! Tom Scudamore goes to Kempton where he partners Balgarry, Dell' Arca, Poole Master and Stars Over The Sea. Meanwhile David Noonan comes in for the mount aboard last time out winner Gevrey Chambertin in the 2m7 1/2f handicap hurdle at Chepstow and he claims a handy 5lbs off his back which could prove beneficial as that trip is going to take some getting on extremely testing ground. I did have a look at the Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton and I thought that Dell' Arca looked to have sound claims although Bivouac looks likely to go well from the Henderson camp, while I thought that the sharp nature of the track would suit a front runner such as Balgarry in the 2m2f handicap chase.
- Friday, 08 January 2016 09:00
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
Today we have three meetings taking place with a jumps card from Doncaster as well as a couple of all-weather flat meetings from Lingfield and Wolverhampton. David has no runners this afternoon although stable jockey Tom Scudamore heads to Doncaster for two rides and they both appear to hold solid chances. Meanwhile it was good to see eleven year old Sunny Legend winning at Towcester yesterday afternoon - it was his first success in over two years and just goes to show that some of us oldies still have a bit of life left in us!
- Thursday, 07 January 2016 08:31
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
The debate continues about the racing coverage following ITV securing the rights to be the sport's terrestrial broadcaster. I have to say, I have never heard anyone say that they had to switch on to Channel 4 to watch Gok Wan talking about the fashion at the races. To be perfectly honest, I would much rather listen to Sir Anthony McCoy talking about fashion because he has no idea - it would be great entertainment! I always thought that people tuned in to Channel 4 Racing to watch the horses...or am I oversimplifying things once again?!
- Wednesday, 06 January 2016 08:32
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with a jumps card from Huntingdon as well as three all-weather flat fixtures from Chelmsford City, Wolverhampton and Kempton. David has two runners at Huntingdon today; Still Together and Iniciar and they are both big prices according to the Racing Post. Still Together (pictured above) did win an Irish point-to-point on heavy ground but is yet to show much in this country and he has a tough assignment against Potters Legend who is a big odds-on chance and very much the one to beat. Iniciar was a good flat performer back in France but he hasn't improved for the switch to hurdling.
- Tuesday, 05 January 2016 08:53
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
The stable was among the winners again yesterday as David struck with his only runner, Mount Haven at Ludlow. He won the maiden hurdle under Tom Scudamore in good style from his chief market rival, the pair of them pulling well clear of the remainder in the closing stages. With this first run of the season behind him our former bumper winner can go onto better things. I was driving up to the stable from South Devon this morning and you could see fields flooded and full of standing water either side of the M5. We have certainly had plenty of rain, although that pales into insignificance alongside what they have been enduring to the north of the country.
