Houston Wincanton Winner

Saturday proved a good day for the yard with Houston Dynimo winning the handicap chase at Wincanton under a great ride from David Noonan, while Lady Of Longstone also ran well to finish runner-up in the mares' handicap hurdle from a career high mark.  The pair of them earned close to £12,000 in prize money...just think how many cakes Sue can make with that much money!  Bless her, she must have made nearly 200 cakes (pictured above) last week for the staff at Pond House and the staff were all over them like a plague of locusts and that was just Gail, Gemma and James in the office!  No wonder Sue's horses are running so well, the staff are all carrying a bit of overweight up the gallops!

Meanwhile over at Auteuil, Broadway Buffalo was far from disgraced in the Group One hurdle over three miles, finishing fifth beaten only five lengths under Katie Walsh.  He picked up £14,341 for his efforts and looks set for a good season ahead.

Stable jockey Tom Scudamore was on Channel 4 Racing most of the day on Saturday - he really does have a face for radio!  I'm only joking, Tom is a natural on the television and always comes across as a gentleman and a very well informed one at that.  I was most amused when host Nick Luck pressed Tom for a dark horse to follow...he went for Champers On Ice, only for Nick Luck to follow-up with his best impression of MCP!  He was terrible - I had no idea that Martin had such a squeaky voice!  Tom Scu did manage to pick out a 10/1 winner so he has obviously been using my pin.  I certainly know what job he is going to be doing when his riding days are over.

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with two jumps cards from Southwell and Carlisle as well as an all-weather flat fixture from Kempton.  Looking through the card for Carlisle, there are plenty of trainers who have travelled a long way with runners.  Messrs Nicholls, Tizzard, Sherwood and Mulholland have plenty of runners between them and it would be a surprise if they all left empty handed.  The Nicholls pair of Silsol and Salubrious look to have good chances.

*****

Arsenal drew 1-1 with Spurs yesterday and it appears that the Gunners are in desperate need of a striker.  Giroud had six chances and failed to score while on the other side of the pitch Harry Kane had one chance and made the most of it.  Arsenal also need a new centre-half if they are going to win the Premier League.  It certainly is a funny old game - how unlucky are Bournemouth?  They completely outplayed Newcastle and had 22 chances without managing to hit the back of the net, while the Geordies had one opportunity and scored.

Liverpool don't exactly look to have come alive since employing Klopp as manager.  I don't think a new manager was ever the order of the day - they are in need of new players.  Anfield legend Steven Gerard was there to see them lose yesterday - he couldn't even stand to watch for the full 90 minutes.

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I was sat watching the television on Saturday night and Mrs Barnes had a little tipple.  After a while she said out of nowhere, "I love you".  I said "Is that the wine talking", she replied "No, it is me talking to the wine!"  Have a nice day...

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