Three Runners At Stratford

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Huntingdon, Lingfield and Sedgefield while there is an all-weather flat fixture from Wolverhampton.  David has three runners this afternoon at Huntingdon; Spending Time, Balgarry and Barneby.  Spending Time (pictured above) won at Stratford from a mark of 95 and now goes from 104 so he will have to have improved again, although he will like the ground - the same comments apply to Balgarry who has to defy a mark of 135 on his chasing debut.  Conor O'Farrell is aboard them both.  Meanwhile, Barneby will be partnered by Kieron Edgar and he would have to improve on what he has shown thus far.

Stable jockey Tom Scudamore is hoping to get the all-clear from the doctor and be back in the saddle on Thursday, just in time for the Paddy Power meeting at Cheltenham this weekend.  He did start riding out again on Sunday but it takes a while to build yourself back to full race fitness, although in fairness to Tom, he has been putting in the hours at the gym.

I did say yesterday that the Paul Nicholls pair at Carlisle should go well and so it proved with Silsol and Salubrious both winning.  I can see southern trainers making more and more trips up north in the future.

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Doping in sport has long been a problem and it isn't just athletics where the governing bodies are struggling to get to grips with the scale of the problem.  You also have cycling and swimming where there have been high profile drugs cheats.  I reckon snooker and darts would be clean - there is just drink involved there instead of drugs!  Former Olympic champion Steve Cram said that the authorities new about doping right back when he started competing at the age of 17 so why have they not been able to crack down on it?  I still remember many years ago there was an extremely successful Russian lady shot-putter called Tarma Press - she refused a drugs test and then promptly disappeared from the sport and never competed again.  It has been going on for many years and and a renowned expert tells me that only 2% of drugs cheats ever get caught.  I am not sure that Seb Coe is the man to turn it around either - he seems far too nice and probably is in denial about the extent of the problem.

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It is amazing how there is talk about Bournemouth sacking manager Eddie Howe - he has done an incredible job of getting them into the Premier League, how on earth could they consider giving him his P45 now?  The same comment applies to the Swansea manager.

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What sort of music do bankers listen to?  Northern Rock!

What do you call a sweater hanging from the top of a mountain?  A bungee jumper!

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