One At Warwick

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps action coming from Warwick and Fakenham while there are a couple of all-weather flat fixtures from Southwell and Chelmsford City. David has one runner at Warick today; Herbert Park who carries top weight of 11-12 in the 3m2f handicap hurdle. He is yet to recapture the best of his form from last season which saw him win three times and he is now tried in blinkers. Tom Scudamore is in the saddle and the Post make him an 11/1 chance.

There are no inspections planned today with all the meetings looking set to go ahead, although we did have a frost at the yard overnight. It was quite unexpected too as temperatures were up around 8°c last night. Worse still, there was a bit of rain before it decided to freeze so everything is quite slippery this morning.

Looking through the ante-post markets I don’t think I have ever seen so many odds-on chances in the big races. There are fourteen big races priced up in today’s paper and there are odds-on shots in half of them. They can’t all win…can they?!

It’s a shame to see the pictures of the late Sir Henry Cecil’s Warren Place stables standing empty. Following Godolphin’s purchase of the yard it will not be used until 2017. I certainly have mixed feelings about the stable changing hands – I will always remember my visit there with Martin years ago, the picture still has pride of place in my living room at home.

*****

There was another terrible refereeing blunder last night in the second leg of Manchester City and Everton’s Capital One Cup semi-final. The goal that put Everton out should never have been allowed with the referee getting it all wrong. Raheem Sterling clearly knocked the ball out of play before crossing it for Kevin de Bruyne to equalize. Top referee and pundit Mark Halsey agreed, adding that it was “a big error”. Surely there needs to be touchline technology introduced to assist the referees on field? It only requires a referee with a television and a replay facility to sort this mess out…it needn’t cost millions, although last night’s blunder is sure to have cost Everton a pretty penny.

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A guy is sitting at home when he hears a knock at the door. He opens the door and sees a snail on the porch. He picks up the snail and throws it as far as he can. Three years later there’s a knock on the door. He opens it and sees the same snail. The snail says: ‘What the hell was that all about?’ Have a nice day…

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