Trio At Taunton Today

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps action from our local track at Taunton as well as Warwick and Newcastle while there is an all-weather flat fixture from Chelmsford City.  Newcastle get the wooden spoon today as they fork out just £30,000 prize money for their seven race card - it seems to me that it is always the same tracks that cough up the least.  David has three runners at Taunton; Spending Time, Brook and Balgarry - Spending Time won at Huntingdon on his chase debut and followed that up with a good second at Wincanton last time from this mark of 112.  A big run is expected from him.  Brook was disappointing last time at Cheltenham but he had previously scored twice on soft and heavy ground while the free-going Balgarry should be an exhilarating ride for Scu in the 2m2f handicap chase.

I see that Carlisle have been working on a good promotion - they will be offering free admission to race goers for Sunday's meeting and David does have a handful of entries at the fixture.  If you are local, do try to go along as it should be an enjoyable day.  Unfortunately they forget to tell you that you will need a boat...it is quite amazing how much rain they have had in the area and the damage caused by flooding so do check to see if there is an inspection planned before travelling.  We had the same problem in the west country a couple of years ago when the Somerset levels flooded.  The pictures you see on television look awful and I really do feel for those affected.

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There were some good results for the British teams in Europe last night as Arsenal beat Olympiakos 3-0 and Chelsea beat Porto 2-0.  Yes, you did read it correctly - Chelsea did win!  That result means that Mourinho's men have won their group and will now miss all of the big teams in the next round.

Pretty much as the betting suggested, Gary Monk has been sacked from his position as Swansea manager.  It was only last season that he led them to their best ever finish of 8th in the Premier League...a season is a long time in football.  If Swansea stay in the Premier League it means they will have had a good season.  It is a manager's merry-go-round and whoever takes over will struggle and then it will become apparent what a good job Gary Monk did with Swansea.

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I have just been informed that a lorry carrying a load of onions has just overturned on the M1 shedding it's load on the motorway.  Motorists are advised to find a hard shoulder to cry on!

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