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Today is another Saturday without any jumps racing but there are six flat cards at Chester, Doncaster, Lingfield, Newcastle, Newmarket and Windsor.  There is jumps racing at Uttoxeter tomorrow but David does not have any runners.  The photo in yesterdays Racing Post of Newcastle showed the course under water and it reminded me of a story of a good few years ago.  MCP and and Bob Wheatly went up to Newcastle with Baron Blakeney for the Northumberland Plate.  Baron needed heavy ground so MCP and Bob did a rain dance and the heavens opened up.  It actually raiend so much that the track got waterlogged and the meeting was called off!  It was a long way home, especially in those days!  I am pleased to report the good news is that the Newcastle course has passed its morning inspection and racing goes ahead.  It looked as though it was going to be odds against racing taking place but miracles do happen and althought the course in heavy it is raceable and not waterlogged.

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Today there are five flat meetings at Doncaster, Folkestone, Musselburgh, Chester and Newmarket.  Some of the ground is given as good to firm and some as heavy which just highlights the randowm weather we are having across the UK at the moment.  They have had some terrible flooding up North and the Newcastle track is under a foot of water and their biggest day of the year with the card featuring the Northumberland Plate on Saturday is under threat.  The runners were at the start for the 4pm raceyesterday when the storm started and the horses were called back to the stables and the meeting was abandoned.  The pictures on the news this morning from that part of the country look terrible and we are lucky that we only had 3mm of rain and some sunshine at Pond House!  There is no jumping action either today or tomorrow with the next being on Sunday at Uttoxeter where David has a few entered so check back here tomorrow for more news of the stable runners.

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                  Too Generous

David's horses ran well at Worcester yesterday, especially a great first ever run from Too Generous in the mares bumper.  Our four year old dead heated with the favourite Blue Article after we looked beaten two furlongs out and looked sure to finish second but Tom Scu kept at our filly and she responded well.  She was very game and in another couple of strides she would have won the race outright.  She can only improve for the experience and she is a lovely prospect to look forward to over hurdles as she has already done some schooling at home and shown a good aptitude for the jumping game.  Beattie Green went up twelve pounds for winning a seller on her latest start and the handicapper completely over reacted and I hope he now has a look at her rating and drops her quite a few pounds after she was disappointing yesterday.  Battle Group ran a funny race.  He looked like winning turning in to the straight but did not give Tom Scu a lot of help after that and finished second.  He will win but he is the only one that knows when!

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Battle Group after finishing 4th at the Cheltenham Festival

There are five meetings today, four on the flat at Carlisle, Bath, Salisbury and Kempton and a jumps card at Worcester.  The stable has lots of entries at Worcester and David is going to have a busy day!  Battle Group kicks off proceeding in the novice chase.  He is extremely talented but a little quirky and if he puts his best foot forward this afternoon he should hopefully win.  He is very clever and does know what this racing game is all about if you know what I mean!  Soulard runs in the handicap chase while Too Generous is making her racecourse debut in the Bumper.  She works well at home but it does look a fairly competitive little race.  Beattie Green runs in a handicap hurdle and the handicapper put her up twelve pounds for winning a seller on her latest start which seems a little harsh.  Ladyvie runs in another hurdle race after finishing third last time out at Towcester, she was the winner of a chase on her penultimate start and is still looking for her first win over hurdle.  UPDATE: Ladyvie is now a non-runner.  Royal Peak is also making his racecourse debut in the maiden hurdle while Qulinton runs in the final race of the day.  He ran well at the course last time out and again has Tom Scu in the saddle.

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There are four meeting on around the country today, three on the flat and plus a local jumps card at Newton Abbot this evening.  The stable has a couple of runners there, Dandyvic in the maiden hurdle and Kusadasi in the handicap hurdle.  Dandyvic is having her first run for David having won an Irish point to point so it will be interesting to see how she gets on.  Kusadasi has not shown much in two starts for the stable and needs to find some improvement to have a chance of winning.  The track had 2mm of rain overnight which has not altered the going, it is still heavy, soft in places.  I hear there was not a big crowd at Newton Abbot's fixture last week, perhaps due to it being on the same night that England played.  There is usually a good turn out so I am sure there will be lots of people there this evening and there are some good races to look forward to.

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Today there are four flat meetings at Chepstow, Thirsk, Windsor and Wolverhampton.  Once again there was heavy rain around the country over the weekend and we have 15mm of rain to add to the recent deluge.  The ground at Chepstow is forecast as heavy so make sure your selections go on the ground.  There is jumps racing at Newton Abbot tomorrow evening and David has a few entries.  The going there is currently heavy, soft in places so they will be hoping that there is not too much more rain before then.  Check back here tomorrow for more news of runners coming up this week.

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Well, Royal Ascot is behind us for another year and there are three race meetings taking place this afternoon with a flat card at Pontefract and two jump meetings at Hereford and Hexham.  There has been plenty of rain up north with localised flooding and the ground is being described as heavy at Hexham.  Hexham is a stiff track at the best of times, but when the ground comes up very soft, it can become a real slog for the horses.

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