Soll Strikes At Newbury!

Another weekend, another nice winner for the stable.  Soll followed up his Exeter debut success for the stable by landing the valuable veteran's chase at Newbury under a good ride from Conor O'Farrell.  He is in the Crabbies Grand National at Aintree and has a mark of 139 (which was his winning mark on Saturday) and he looks as though he will get a run according to the handicapper.  The marathon test should be right up his street as he has stamina in abundance - he finished seventh in the race for Jo Hughes in 2012 and it would be no great surprise were he to better that this time around.

Meanwhile Rathealy ran creditably under a 7lbs penalty on the same card and For 'N' Against ran his best race to date when finishing runner-up at Huntingdon yesterday.  There look to be races in both of those.

I see that Corals PR Director Simon Clare is participating in the St Patrick's Day Derby at the Cheltenham Festival. Simon has only recently learned how to ride so he is a lot braver than I am.  I had a couple of goes at riding a horse - the first day on the gallops I loved it, the second day jumping over poles I fell off and broke my wrist bringing to an end my promising riding career!  Anyway I digress, Simon is raising money for the Injured Jockeys' Fund - a most worthy cause and if you would like to donate you can do so online by visiting: www.justgiving.com/simon-clare/ - it is an excellent cause and we wish Simon the best of luck with his fund raising and also in the race.

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England's cricketers suffered another crushing defeat in the World Cup as they were beaten by Sri Lanka.  Our bowlers were terrible, Willie Wood or David Bryant would have bowled better (older readers will know who I am talking about).  This has to be one of the worst England sides of all time - even Kevin Pietersen might get another chance, and while I wouldn't advocate having him in the dressing room, he could only improve the side.

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What about referee Roger East sending off the wrong man at Old Trafford at the weekend during Manchester United's match with Sunderland?  He sent off Wes Brown even though it was team mate John O'Shea who committed the foul - this kind of schoolboy error is the very reason why we need to implement replay technology into the game.

I didn't think that Chelsea looked two goals better than Spurs in the final of the Capital One Cup but that is the way it turned out.  It must have been a long trip home for long time Tottenham fan Ashley Farrant who went along to the match.

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Finally, police in Seattle are hunting a yob who hurled an egg at a woman in a drive-by attack rendering her unconscious.  She had a scrambled head and that's no yoke!