Cheltenham Action Today

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with three flat fixtures from Beverley, Newmarket and Kempton while there is jumping action from Cheltenham.  The stable has two runners at Cheltenham;  Batavir and Rathealy.  Batavir has run three good races recently including when third at Wincanton last time from today's mark of 125.  Stable jockey Tom Scudamore is back on board and he should go well once again.  Meanwhile Rathealy will be a big price for the 5.20pm race - he is yet to recapture the best of last season's form that saw him win two of his last three starts, although he has begun to drop to a feasible handicap mark now.

There was a good result at Exeter yesterday as Gerry Supple's better half Jo Buck (pictured above) landed the novices' Hunter Chase aboard Dicky Bob. Gerry takes his role as coach/agent very seriously, although he is clearly very proud of his fiancee's achievements.  There was a sting in the tail for all the riders' however as they were banned for a day for cantering into the start.  I still think that a lot of the time it is the starter who gets it wrong...what was wrong with the old standing starts?  They always seemed to go okay and they didn't add an extra 50-100 yards onto a race distance!

The voting for the Racehorse of the Year has begun and it will be fascinating to see who wins it out of the nominees Annie Power, Cue Card, Don Cossack, Sprinter Sacre or Thistlecrack.  For me the winner would be Annie Power, although I am sure that Tom Scudamore would hold a completely different view!

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There was an excellent result for Manchester City as they beat Paris St Germain 1-0 to advance to the semi-finals of the Champions League.  Mind you, Real Madrid beat Wolfsburg 3-0 and Ronaldo scored three goals so they will be tough opponents for anybody.

Meanwhile my beloved West Ham play Manchester United in the quarter finals of the FA Cup and they should win (sorry Tony!).  You can get 17/10 about the Hammers and I think I will re-invest some of my winnings from Manchester City last night.

I see that Russia still want Maria Sharapova to compete for their nation in the Olympic Games despite the fact that she is still waiting for a date from the International Tennis Federation into her alleged doping charges...quite extraordinary.

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Why is it that the winner of the Miss Universe competition always comes from earth?!  Have a nice day...

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