Vif Victorious At Newbury!

There was a nice winner for the stable yesterday when Vif Argent returned to form with a vengeance at Newbury under a well judged front running ride from conditional jockey Kieron Edgar.  The horses were certainly finishing tired yesterday but our ex-French gelding saw things out really well in the closing stages, eventually drawing five lengths clear.  Kieron's 5lbs claim would certainly have been beneficial.

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with three jumps cards from Newbury, Doncaster and Kelso and an all-weather flat fixture at Lingfield.  The stable runs Poole Master, Soll, Easter Meteor and Rathealy at Newbury.  Rathealy put up a good performance when winning earlier in the week and is turned out again quickly under a penalty before the handicapper can have his say - he is ridden today by much improved conditional Michael Heard, who claims a useful 7lbs off his back.  Meanwhile we run Batavir at Doncaster and Tom Scudamore makes the long trip north to take the ride.  He has won his last two starts at Ascot and Wincanton in convincing style and while he has gone up 22lbs in the weights, he still looks to hold leading claims in a tight looking handicap.

With only ten days to go now until the start of the Cheltenham Festival I am like a big kid waiting for Christmas!  It sounds as though I have some 'good things' to look forward to for the four most important days of the year!

The bookmakers are offering all sorts of exotic bets, including Betfred who go 6/4 that A P rides a winner on Channel 4 - he has four chances at Doncaster today including a forecast favourite and two second favourites so that could prove tempting.  There are also a few firms offering money back on any fallers in the televised races today - they are really trying to attract the punters going into the Festival.

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As usual, I will be having a little flutter on the football this afternoon and will be having a cheeky little treble on Stoke at evens, West Ham at 6/5 and Bournemouth at 3/4.  Sky Sports will be televising my beloved West Ham from 12.45pn so guess where I will be...with the television controls.  Great football and great racing on the television, it doesn't get much better than that!

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There was a really exciting cricket match in the World Cup (honestly!) as New Zealand beat Australia in a low scoring game.  I have some relations in Australia and I might just give them a bell, although I will wait until the middle of the night!

It baffles me why all the European football teams don't get together and say no to a Football World Cup in Qatar.  I have never been a fan of FIFA President Sepp Blatter - he should have gone ten years ago as far as I am concerned.  He seems absolutely clueless and seemed genuinely surprised that it was going to be hot in Qatar in the summer...that is all you need to know.

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Finally, a man in Philadelphia grew 46DD breasts after being prescribed drugs as a teenager.  He has just been awarded $1.6million damages - I guess it was a drugs bust!