Exeter Double

It was another good day for the stable yesterday with a double at Exeter with our first runners of the week; Twentytwo's Taken and Brook.  David certainly has the stable in irresistible form as we head towards the Grand National meeting at Aintree next week.  Twentytwo's Taken was making her first appearance for 340 days but was given another good ride from David Noonan, who himself is having something of a break-out season with 35 winners already on the board.  The one that surprised me however was Brook (pictured below) who ran out a convincing winner of the three mile handicap chase under Conor O'Farrell, although this was probably a very good bit of placement from David.  Dusk Till Dawn finished fourth in the novices' handicap hurdle over 2m5 1/2f and it looks as though fences and three miles could be the answer for this former Irish point-to-point winner - I make it sound very easy, but it certainly isn't - just ask David!

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps action from Ffos Las and Bangor as well as all-weather flat fixtures from Wolverhampton and Chelmsford City.  David runs Obistar and Pilgrims Bay at Ffos Las and Saint John Henry at Bangor.  Conor O'Farrell does duty at Ffos Las and he is aboard Obistar who is making his second start following a lay-off, while Pilgrims Bay remains a stone higher than his winning mark of 110.  David Noonan is aboard Saint John Henry and a repeat of his close second at Warwick last time would give him every chance here.

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England did extremely well to beat New Zealand yesterday and advance to the final of the World T20 championships.  It isn't often that you get to say that England were different class but they were yesterday with Jason Roy scoring 78 from just 44 balls.  England are now only 13/10 to win the final.

I have been saying it for sometime, but Roy Hodgson just confirmed what I had been thinking all along - he has run out of ideas.  He has just stated that he wished he had John Terry in his side - the Chelsea man quit England four years ago.  He certainly remains a quality player, but he is not the answer for England - we never won anything when Terry was in his pomp, why should that change now?  We need a younger manager with fresh ideas!

Talking of football managers, why did it hit the headlines when Gary Neville was sacked from Valencia?  He hadn't exactly covered himself in glory - in fact, if he had been managing an English side he would have been sacked long before!  I wonder how much he is going to pick up in compensation?

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Finally, another thought for the day...nothing ruins a Friday more than realising that it is only Thursday!  Have a nice day.

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