Rathealy Wins At Plumpton

David moved onto 99 winners for the season when Rathealy (pictured above) ran out a stylish winner of the handicap hurdle at Plumpton yesterday under Tom Scudamore, foiling the gamble on beleaguered Lucy Gardner and Sirop de Menthe.  The left-handed track clearly suited our runner better than at Taunton last time and hopefully he can go on to bigger and better things.  With a time sixteen seconds faster than the maiden hurdle, he looks alright to me.  Meanwhile Tom Scudamore moved onto 121 winners - what a season they are both having!

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with two jumps cards from Leicester and Catterick as well as an all-weather flat fixture from Lingfield.  It is a quiet day for the yard as we have no runners this afternoon and can you believe it, it looks as though A P McCoy is taking the day off too.

Apparently Nicky Henderson says that former Champion Chaser Sprinter Sacre is in 'seriously good shape' although I was interested to see that when his staff were asked for their festival fancies, none of them nominated Sprinter.  Instead they went for Peace And Co (Triumph), l'Ami Serge (Supreme Novices Hurdle) and Josses Hill (Arkle).  Following the facile success of Sire de Grugy at Chepstow on Saturday, Sprinter Sacre is certainly going to have a fight on his hooves.

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There is a great football match on the television tonight between Manchester City and Barcelona and it will be great to see Luis Suarez playing in this country again, adding a bit of bite to the Barcelona forward line!  Are the Spanish really that much better than us?  According to the bookmakers they are as you can get 5/2 against City while Barcelona are as short as 11/10.  I can't see it ending in a draw considering how many goals are scored on this pitch.  Kick off is on ITV at 7.45pm

Looking forward to the next World Cup in Qatar, I can see there being no end of problems.  Many of the sides will complain that it is too hot to play in, while if they put the tournament back, it would interfere with all of the European league matches.  Surely those involved in picking the venue knew that it was going to be unsuitable - it all smells a bit fishy to me.

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You have to love European Ryder Cup captain Darren Clarke.  When asked why he and Tiger Woods got on so well he replied, "That's easy, similar build, similar colour and similar stature in the game!"  It was said with tongue firmly in cheek.

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A drunk woman of 71 was nicked after walking into a police station and flashing her bare boobs in Indian River, Florida...I guess she was busted!  Have a nice day...