Sedgefield,Stratford Runners

There are five meetings taking place today with three jumps cards from Stratford, Southwell and Sedgefield as well as flat fixtures from Musselburgh and Wolverhampton.  Considering there was no National Hunt action on Monday or Wednesday you would have to say that is a lousy piece of race planning for all those jockeys.  David runs Spending Time and Low Key at Stratford and Vayland at Sedgefield.  Low Key has run well in better races than this on his last couple of starts and would not need to improve an awful lot to hold major claims under Tom Scudamore.  Spending Time was a long way behind Sutton Storm last time out but I think he will be a lot closer this time, while Vayland (pictured above) is the highest rated in the Sedgefield novices' hurdle and he will be partnered by Daryl Jacob.

I was very sad to learn that former Pond House favourite Swing Bill has passed away at the age of 14 after failing to recover from a bout of colic.  He ran over the Grand National fences on seven occasions (failing only to finish once when pulled up in the Becher Chase) while he finished sixth in the 2013 Grand National.  Following his retirement from racing under rules he had spent a season contesting point-to-points for Guy Disney before retiring from racing altogether.  Due to his courage and longevity 'Bill' (pictured right) had become a great favourite at Pond House and I know that everyone will be sorry to learn of his passing.

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Manchester United won 4-0 against Club Brugge in their Champions League match with Wayne Rooney scoring a hat-trick.  I did alleviate the bookies of a bit of the 10/11, although if I had known that Brugge were going to play eight reserves I would have had a lot more on.  It shows you how bad they were for Rooney to score three goals!  At least my old mate Tony will be happy.

While we are on the subject of football, what is the point of Everton trying to keep hold of John Stones?  The centre back has asked for a transfer and I would have thought the sooner he leaves, the better.  It's no good trying to keep a player if they really don't want to be there.

Meanwhile, Southampton are 23/20 to beat a Danish side that I have never heard of and certainly cannot pronounce their name...Midtjylland.  I will be having a small interest on Southampton to keep my good run of form going.

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Finally, what is black when clean and white when dirty?  Answer, a blackboard...think about it!

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