Newton Trio

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with flat fixtures from Ayr, Southwell and Windsor supported by a jumps card from our local track at Newton Abbot.  The stable has three runners at Newton Abbot; Prince Of Poets, Low Key and Junior Package.  Following a very wet few days the ground at the Devon track is likely to be very testing.  Prince Of Poets (pictured above right on the gallops recently) is a lightly raced four year old who managed to win a bumper on the all-weather at Lingfield as well as finish third at Worcester on good/firm ground - these will certainly be different underfoot conditions today.  Meanwhile Low Key was a facile winner on the flat for David last term and he finished a good third at Taunton over hurdles last time - he acted on soft ground on the level and he looks to have solid claims.  Our final runner is Junior Package who competes in the bumper - he was fourth on his first ever racecourse appearance and with the benefit of that experience I wouldn't be at all surprised to see him go well.  Tom Scudamore is aboard all three of our runners today.

Of our runners at Uttoxeter yesterday it didn't look as though Houston Dynimo liked the soft ground at all so there will be other days for him, while I thought Standing Ovation ran okay on reverting back to the smaller obstacles and this will have blown away the cobwebs.

It is the start of the Galway Festival this afternoon and there is a good mixed card to look forward to.  While this meeting is usually a Dermot Weld benefit, it looks very competitive this year.  I wouldn't be at all surprised to see the O'Brien name in the winners' enclosure a bit this week - there is Aidan, Joseph and Miss S O'Brien today.  Meanwhile the trainers to follow over the sticks (not very originally!) look to be Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott.

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I see that David still has a couple of good looking horses advertised for sale on his website.  I saw Still Together while I was in the yard on Saturday and he was being ridden by stable stalwart Gerry Supple and I have to say that Still Together is comfortably the better looking of the pair!  He was a winner of an Irish point-to-point on heavy ground at Monksgrange and our five year old gelding will in all likelihood start in bumpers before going hurdling/chasing.  He is very nearly ready to run and offers extremely good value for an Irish point-to-point winner - for further details take a look at our horses for sale page.

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Much as I hate to admit it, there was an exciting race for the Hungarian Grand Prix yesterday.  That probably has as much to do with the fact that Mercedes didn't win!  There were a number of incidents and it was extremely unpredictable with four time world champion Sebastian Vettel emerging victorious in his Ferrari.  Hamilton started on pole but only finished sixth - did he bottle it or was it just a bad day behind the wheel?  He did seem to make a lot of errors and would probably have failed his driving test on that performance!  Mind you, he extended his lead in the drivers' championship as Rosberg somehow managed to finish behind him!

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Racing Post sports pundit Steve Palmer should make a colourful appearance in tonight's second program 'Britain At The Bookies'.  I am not sure what the television company are trying to prove with this show - I guess it all depends on the editor and what they choose to show and what they choose to leave out.  If Palmer's writing is anything to go by though, it should certainly be more entertaining than last week.

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Finally a couple of funnies to get the week off to a good start...Why was the computer tired when it returned home?  Because it had a hard drive!
What do you call a woman in the distance?  Dot!  On that note I will leave you...

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