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Eton Mes (IRE)
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- Sunday, 06 March 2016 00:00
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
This afternoon there are just two meetings taking place with a couple of National Hunt fixtures from Huntingdon and Sedgefield. David has one runner this afternoon at Sedgefield as Bella (pictured above) makes the long trip north for the mares' handicap hurdle qualifier. She has already had a stellar season and David has placed her particularly well to win three times, picking up plenty of good prize money in the process. She has to shoulder the burden of top weight although she should go well once again in the hands of Tom Scudamore. There was snow on the track at Wetherby and Doncaster yesterday so let's hope that Sedgefield manage to avoid the worst of the elements this afternoon.
As I mentioned earlier in the week, I paid a visit to Lambourn where our hosts included former champion jockey John Francome. John is still heavily involved in the sport and has some interesting ideas for the game moving forward. He is very keen on holding some races where the jockeys cannot use their sticks - interestingly he says the A P McCoy would have won even more races because he was stronger and fitter than the rest of the jockeys. He is also of the opinion that the whip will be banned sooner or later so what harm can it do to trial it for a couple of weeks? I am still not 100% convinced on this idea.
I do agree however with his idea about centralised stewards. There should be a professional group of stewards in a studio who can cover all of the races at all of the meetings. In that way at least we should get consistent decisions and it should also dramatically reduce the cost to the sport. I am not sure the stewards would be in favour of this and that is understandable - I would love a job where I get to go to the races every day and have a free lunch and a bottle of wine!
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There are a couple of important football matches for some of the teams at the bottom of the Premier League this afternoon. Crystal Palace take on Liverpool at 1.30pm while West Brom play Manchester United at 4pm - it could be an away win double.
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Finally, a thought for the day...if at first you don't succeed, so much for skydiving! I hope you have an enjoyable weekend.