Four At Taunton

Today there are three meetings taking place with a jumps card from our local track at Taunton as well as a couple of all-weather flat fixtures from Chelmsford City and Kempton.  David has four runners at Taunton; Miss Gotaway, Junior Package, Top Wood and My Brother Sylvest.  Miss Gotaway makes her debut for the stable this afternoon having done very well in point-to-points, winning three times last season.  She will need to jump better than when disappointing in a Cheltenham Hunters Chase but is working well at home.  Junior Package is going to need to improve significantly to figure, while Top Wood would have sound claims if repeating his good Chepstow second last time out.  My Brother Sylvest (pictured above) hasn't won since 2013 and could probably do with quicker ground and some respite from the handicapper.

I thought that Doctor Harper ran a promising race yesterday at Ludlow in the face of a very difficult task against Garde la Victoire.  He jumped soundly on only his second start over fences and he should be more than capable of winning races in this sphere.  Meanwhile Baraka de Thaix wasn't disgraced in fourth over this longer trip of 2m5f and looks as though he may stay further still.

There was an interesting article in the Racing Post which featured a whole host of up and coming young trainers, although it did say that they all lacked the 'Pipe Factor'.  I was with Martin for over 30 years and I was lucky enough to see most of what he did to get his horses fit and how good he was at placing horses - sometimes he would have races mapped out months in advance.  Geniuses do not come along very often.

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There was a good result for Manchester United last night as they scored three goals and nicked a point away at Newcastle.  The are now only one point behind a good side like West Ham so I guess they are not as bad as everyone thinks!

There are three big matches tonight with Tottenham versus Leicester, Liverpool against Arsenal and probably the most important of all, Swansea versus Sunderland.  Big Sam Allardyce has been winding up Swansea so it should make for interesting viewing.  Meanwhile, Spurs and Leicester are meeting so often that people will start talking!

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What is faster, cold or heat?  Heat - you can catch cold!

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