Racer Runner-Up

Moon Racer finished runner-up in the Grade One Champion Bumper at Punchestown, beaten only 3/4 length on his first start for 413 days.  This was a cracking effort in such esteemed company and he quickened really well to put himself bang in contention in the straight although he could never quite get past the winner Blow By Blow who made all under Katie Walsh.  Moon Racer remains an exciting prospect and should make up into a top class novice hurdler this season - I can't wait to see that.

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with flat action from Redcar, Lingfield and Chelmsford City, while the first jumps card of the season open to professionals comes from Sedgefield.  Meanwhile, over in Ireland it is day three of the Punchestown Festival.

There was some performance from Carlingford Lough to win the Punchestown Gold Cup and even now I am not quite sure how he did it.  He was struggling all the way around but somehow Barry Geraghty managed to get him running and this thorough stayer kept on dourly to score by 4 1/2 lengths.  Cue Card was disappointing and it looked as though he has had enough for the season.  There have been a whole host of favourites turned over during the course of the meeting so I wouldn't be in any great hurry to back Douvan today at 1/8 even though he looks a class (or maybe two!) above his rivals.

Newly crowned champion jockey Richard Johnson starts off today in defense of his title and he has two rides at Sedgefield.  He has no rides in the first two races on the card so there is going to be a different championship leader...for a while at least!  Conditional jockey David Noonan also travels to the meeting for one ride...we will test the theory once again!

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I was watching Tyson Fury and Vladimir Klitschko at the Manchester Arena yesterday and I have to say, I struggle to take Fury seriously.  He doesn't look like a finely tuned athlete - he has a belly on him and looks out of shape...don't tell him I said as much!  He says that he is going to move to Los Angeles where people admire success.  As soon as he takes on anyone who can fight, he will lose and I reckon I know why he is leaving Britain..Dele Alli's season is over after he was banned for three matches after punching West Brom's Claudio Yacob - maybe he is lining up a crack at Tyson Fury?!

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I was in the army once and the sergeant asked me "what does a surrender mean".  I told him "I give up!"

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