Taunton, Ludlow Double

What a good day for the stable yesterday with an across the card double courtesy of Top Wood at Leicester and Vazaro Delafayette at Taunton.  Top Wood (pictured above) won by 16 lengths in the hands of Conor O'Farrell and he jumped and travelled very well on this step back up in trip with the blinkers back on.  He could go to the Cheltenham Festival or even the Midlands Grand National later in the month and a good run wouldn't be out of the question if he turned up in the same sort of form.  At Taunton Vazaro Delafayette (pictured below) may have been a shade fortunate to land the novices' handicap chase under Tom Scudamore - he was left in the lead before two out but was only ever doing just enough thereafter.  As I said only yesterday, sometimes you just need a bit of luck in this game.

Our other runners also performed creditably with Nice Thoughts making a pleasing debut over timber, while Lady Of Longstone and Impulsive American both finishing second.  The former was trying to give weight to the winner and it is not difficult to see her winning again, particularly when the ground dries out, a comment which also applies to Impulsive American.

The selling hurdle at Taunton was won by Apache Outlaw and there was a bit of action at the post-race auction as trainer Rebecca Curtis had to go to 7,500 guineas to buy her gelding back - it was just like back in the good old days when every selling winner attracted bids!

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps fixtures from Doncaster and Newbury and a couple of all-weather flat fixtures from Wolverhampton and Lingfield.

I see there is a very good piece in today's Racing Post about Tom Scudamore.  The Pond House stable jockey says that he is not getting carried away with the chances of Thistlecrack in the World Hurdle - pull the other one Tom, it is one of my naps of the meeting (and yes, I am already one).  I have also had a little wager on the Jonjo O'Neill trained Johns Spirit at 12/1 - a mark of 145 looks reasonable to me and he has always liked the track at Cheltenham.

*****

Not only do great sportsmen know when to retire, it would seem that great managers do as well.  Sir Alex Ferguson knew when to call it a day at Manchester United so why does Arsene Wenger insist on hanging on at Arsenal?  He just seems to have run out of ideas and doesn't seem to know what type of player it will take for Arsenal to land a title...what he would give for another Patrick Viera

I rang up a local building firm and said "I want a skip outside my house".  The wise guy on the other end of the phone said "I'm not stopping you!"

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