Exeter, Fakenham Runners

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with flat cards from Brighton and Catterick while there are three jumps fixtures from Fakenham, Sedgefield and Exeter.  David has a couple of runners at Exeter and also one at Fakenham; Kie participates in the 6.45pm race at Exeter, while The Draconian runs in the 8.15pm.  Conditional jockey David Noonan is aboard the pair and takes a handy 3lbs off their backs.  Kie runs from a hurdle mark 17lbs lower than his chase rating - this is his first start for six months but I could see him go well.  Meanwhile, The Draconian will need to have improved for his debut run to figure in the concluding bumper.

Meanwhile, stable jockey Tom Scudamore travels to Fakenham for the mount aboard Prideofthecastle in the 3.30pm.  Our nine year old is extremely consistent and hardly ever runs a bad race.  He was runner-up over this distance last time out at Warwick and believe it or not he was dropped by 1lb in the weights!  He should go close once again.

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How many major sporting events are won by a 5,000/1 chance?  Well, I can think of one that happened only yesterday after Spurs and Chelsea only drew, handing the Premier League to Leicester.  It must be the biggest surprise in any sporting event ever and manager Claudio Ranieri was on the piane back from his mother's 96th birthday in Italy.  Leicester fans were celebrating last night outside of the stadium, meanwhile another Leicester man, Mark Selby was being crowned world snooker champion for a second time by beating Ding Junhui 18-14 in the final.  Selby picked up £330,000 in prize money - a week's wages to Wayne Rooney and I know who is the more skillful.  Anyway, very well done to everybody in Leicester.

There was a punter who had £1 on Leicester to win the Premier League at 5,000/1 and there are pictures of him with his betting slip in the papers.  He looked like a very happy man but I bet he was wondering why he didn't have a bit more on!  That's just the way gamblers think - I should know!

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What an honour for 13 year old Tom McKibbin who has been invited to play alongside Rory McIlroy in the Irish Open.  McKibbin is the world junior champion - I just hope that the pressure and publicity he will get does not upset his game.

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Finally, a thought for the day: Mark Twain once said "Life would be infinitely happier if we ould only be born at the age of eighty and gradually approach eighteen!".

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