Champagne Reception!

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with three jumps cards from Sedgefield, Newton Abbot and Towcester as well as flat fixtures from Redcar and Lingfield.  Don't forget it it is the third day of the Punchestown Festival today as well.  Speaking of which, David had a nice winner at the meeting yesterday afternoon when Champers On Ice prevailed on his Pond House debut in a thrilling finish to the bumper under a great ride from Jamie Codd.  It looked like a good race with the first two home coming 28 lengths clear of the third and is tremendous for owners Bryan Drew and Caroline Tisdall.  Remember they also have Cheltenham Festival bumper winner Moon Racer so they have a couple of really nice youngsters to look forward to.

Meanwhile Ballynagour fell four out in the big race of the day while still looking to hold every chance.  The good news is that he got up okay and David tells me that he is alright - I am sure there will be other big days for him.

Stable jockey Tom Scudamore has flown back from Ireland to ride at Newton Abbot this evening before travelling bacak over to Punchestown tomorrow.  I wonder if that is some statement of intent with regard to the jockeys' championship?  Tonight he rides Moncarno and Susie Sheep while Kieron Edgar takes the mount aboard Race To Glory at our local track.  The Racing Post make all three of them favourites - I hope they are right! Fellow title contenders Richard Johnson and Sam Twiston-Davies are also at Newton Abbot this evening.

I was down the gallops yesterday morning and wondered whether the picture (right) showed the most experienced assistant trainer in the world?!  At the head of the string is Monetaire under Zoe Martin who is an intended runner at Punchestown on Saturday.  The lorry with our next runners at the meeting left last night.

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Ronnie O'Sullivan was dumped out of the quarter finals of the Snooker World Championships by Stuart Bingham last night...at least he will have some time to go and look for a decent pair of shoes now!  It looks like Ronnie's exit has left the door open for Judd Trump to take his first world title.

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Chelsea came from a goal down to beat Leicester 3-1 last night.  I have a friend who finds all of the big odds-on chances - he then waits until they go a goal down before backing them at bigger odds.  I had him on the phone gloating last night!  The Chelsea boss is not my favourite person, but you can't take it away from him - he knows how to organise a team.

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Did you know that in just one day, your heart beats an average of 100,000 times?  Mine was probably beating a lot more than that during the finish to the bumper yesterday!  I bet there was no Champers left on ice at Punchestown yesterday!

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