Streets Ahead!

What a great win from Street Entertainer (pictured above) yesterday afternoon to land the feature 2m4f handicap hurdle at Worcester under a great ride from Tom Scudamore.  I must admit that I thought that a career high mark of 129 was plenty high enough for him but he absolutely bolted up.  Scu was afforded an easy lead up front and with his mount jumping the brush hurdles really well and clearly enjoying the ground he was able to save a bit in front and kicked again off the home turn to score by five lengths.  Obviously he will be going up in the weights again but David has plenty of options for him, including on the level or over fences - if he translates his jumping to the larger obstacles he should have little difficulty winning a novices' chase.

Both Epic Warrior and Prince Of Poets finished third at Worcester yesterday.  It looks to me as though Irish point winner Epic Warrior could do with a longer trip and possibly softer ground, while Prince Of Poets should be winning races when he brushes up his jumping - this was only his first start over timber and I am sure he will improve for the experience.

There is a busy day of racing ahead with six meetings taking place this afternoon.  There are four flat fixtures from York, Sandown, Goodwood and Chepstow, while there are also a couple of decent jumps cards at Aintree and just down the road at Newton Abbot.  The stable has three runners - Good Value and All Force Majeure at Newton Abbot and Purple 'N Gold at Aintree.  Good Value was a decent performer on the flat (with a mark of 82) and he has run a couple of promising races over hurdles recently at Uttoxeter and Warwick and this quicker ground should suit him well.  All Force Majeure finished a little way behind Karl Marx last time out and is only 4lbs better off so he needs to improve to figure, although he shapes like this longer trip of 3m2 1/2f should be in his favour.

Over at the other meeting Purple 'N Gold has been a grand servant for the stable and hardly ever runs a bad race - he has only finished out of the frame on a couple of occasions from sixteen starts over hurdles and put up a career best effort when winning at Haydock in March from a mark of 121.  This is tougher again from 6lbs higher, although winning conditional jockey Kieron Edgar retains the mount and claims 5lbs off his back.

David claimed a nice looking three year old hurdler from Auteuil on Wednesday and it was sold within a couple of hours while there were also several other interested parties.  The stable has enjoyed tremendous success with horses from France in the past, so if you are looking for a horse to be going on with straight away but don't want to spend a king's ransom do get in touch - I am sure David could sort you out.  In the meantime, I see that he has a couple of other good-looking types with form currently for sale.

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Wales take on Belgium tonight in a Euro football qualifier and as far as I can tell to have any chance they need Gareth Bale to be on top form.  It's on Sky at 7.45pm and the Welsh are 9/2 chances - they may be of interest at that sort of price, although much rests on the shoulders of Bale.

I can't believe that Liverpool can command £50 million for Raheem Sterling!  There is no way I would be looking to spend that sort of money on him if I were a football manager.  Manchester City offered £25 million, but I think £35 million would probably buy him.  He doesn't look like a match winner to me and is too unpredictable to be worth that sort of money.

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I see that boxer David Haye wants to fight Anthony Joshua at Wembley.   Haye hasn't fought since beating Derek Chisora in 2012 - he must be running out of money!  If Haye can talk himself into this fight, he will get put on his backside...but at least he will collect a few quid.  Why is it that these boxers want to keep making comebacks?  I will leave that to you...

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Finally, did you know that Donald Duck comics were once banned in Finland because Donald didn't wear any pants?  I guess the Finnish must be quackers!

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