Weekend Jottings

Today there are just two meetings taking place (early morning inspections allowing) from Exeter and Southwell.  The stable has plenty of runners at our local track, Exeter on top of Haldon Hill.  It has been a bit warmer down this way over the last couple of days so let's hope we get some great jumping action.  We are represented by Knight Of Noir, Top Wood, Poole Master (pictured above) and Soll, while Kings Palace ran at Newbury yesterday and was only left in here as a second preference should Saturday's card have fallen to the weather.  Knight Of Noir has run two excellent races in narrow defeat at Cheltenham this season and deserves to pick up a nice prize - this is a series qualifier for the Pertemps hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival - the first eight home will all be eligible for the big one.

Exeter should be congratulated on some excellent prize money this afternoon - as well as the £20,000 Pertemps qualifier, there are another couple of £20,000 races and a £30,000 veteran's chase.  Let's hope the weather stays kind for them and they are rewarded with an excellent crowd.

The Cheltenham Festival Preview evenings start soon and I know that David will be appearing on the panels of the Taunton and Exeter racecourse evenings, while he will also be conducting an interview for one of the Scottish nights.  Some of the other evenings being advertised I am slightly more sceptical about - I have never heard of a few of the so called experts and I would love to see some of their betting accounts.  If they still have them, they are probably not very good!

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Surely former world number one golfer Tiger Woods has the finest back experts in the world looking after him?  It makes me wonder whether the problem with him is actually a mental one?  If he were six under par, I bet his back would not be hurting anything like as much.  I reckon he needs to slow his swing down and it sound as though Butch Harman thinks the same thing.  If you need any other pointers Tiger, I can be contacted care of Pond House!

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What a football match to look forward to on Sky Sports at 4.15pm this afternoon.  West Ham take on Manchester United and it doesn't take a genius to work out where I will be.  It amazes me how some of the betting firms can make United odds-on shots - I think it will be a lot tighter than that.  I will be hiding the remote from Mrs Barnes.

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Apparently there is a flower that has become the first species in the UK to be named after Sir David Attenborough.  A similar thing happened to me once when I was called a pansy!  Have a nice weekend...