Warwick, Chepstow Runners

This afternoon there are four meetings taking place with flat cards at Nottingham and Kempton as well as a couple of jumps fixtures from Warwick and Chepstow.  David has two runners at Warwick; Drumlee Lad and For 'N' Against, while Ballywilliam, Pilgrims Bay and The Draconian run at Chepstow.  For 'N' Against has been very consistent this term and competes here from a mark of 115 which is 5lbs lower than his hurdle rating - his jockey Kieron Edgar takes a handy 3lbs off his back and another big run is anticipated.  Over at Chepstow, Ballywilliam (pictured above) was an impressive bumper winner at the Welsh track last term on soft ground.  He performed poorly on his seasonal debut at Perth over three miles and takes a big drop in distance today - he is clearly better than that and at odds of around 10/1 looks interesting while Pilgrims Bay has the latent ability to go well in the same race if he chooses to put his best foot forward. The Draconian makes his racecourse debut today and I will be interested to see how he gets on, he will certainly learn plenty for the experience.

The ground at Exeter looked pretty testing yesterday.  Only five managed to finish the fourteen runner novices' hurdle to open the card and the times were very slow all day.

Melbourne Cup winning jockey Michelle Payne is clearly good for a soundbite.  The first lady to win the Cup in it's 155 year history said, "A lot of the owners wanted to kick me off.  Everyone else who thinks women aren't good enough can get stuffed!"  I wouldn't like to meet her down a dark alley!

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Isn't it amazing?!  Having just been going on about how Wayne Rooney is a striker who cannot score goals, he finally managed to get on the scoresheet again last night as Manchester United beat CSKA Moscow.  Mind you, Louis Van Gaal's side did get plenty of boo's from the crowd - it would seem that they do not like the manager's style of football.

I see that former England striker and Stevenage manager Teddy Sherringham has registered himself to play for the side at the age of 49 - he has also registered his assistant Kevin Watson.  It should certainly make for interesting viewing, although perhaps it is not as insane as it sounds...Teddy still looks very fit.

My little double came to fruition last night but I don't think I will be playing up any of my winnings tonight.  Olympiakos look like a good bet at 9/20 but the remainder of the matches look tough - Aresenal are 7/1 shots to win at Bayern Munich...I think I will give it a swerve.

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Apparently a Lexus motor car from Plymouth failed it's MOT when testers found a mouse nesting in the air filter.  They said it had a squeaking engine...you just couldn't make it up!

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Don't forget, conditional jockey Kieron Edgar spoke with Mike Vince recently and nominated a horse to follow for the season ahead.  You can see who he selected by watching the video below...

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