3 Worcester Runners

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with flat cards from York, Carlisle, Chepstow and Kempton as well as a National Hunt fixture from Worcester.  The big fixture of the day is at York and winning owners are in for a real treat with over £1 million in prize money on offer - not bad for a Wednesday!  The highlight is the Juddmonte International at 3.40pm - a Group 1 contest over 1m2 1/2f.  As you would expect it has drawn a high-class field and the improving three year old Hawkbill could be interesting at likely odds of around 9/2.

The money isn't quite as grand at Worcester where David has three runners.  Amigo goes in the 5.30pm race; a 2m7f handicap chase and a reproduction of his fifth in the Kim Muir at the Cheltenham Festival would give him a great chance although he is not the easiest horse to predict.  Perspicace is the mount of Tom Scudamore in the 7.00pm race which is a 2m7f handicap hurdle.  He is still above his last winning mark but he performed creditably last time and this step-up in trip may bring about some improvement, although it will need to as he is saddled with top-weight.  Skylander (pictured above) contests the same race and is the mount of Michael Heard who takes a handy 5lbs off his back.

There is plenty of good news for owners today as it has been announced that the Irish Grand National is set to become Ireland's richest race and only surpassed on these shores by the Aintree Grand National and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.  The prize money will be almost doubled to £500,000 so I am sure it will be attracting a quality field.

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What a result for Manchester City last night as they beat Steaua Bucharest 5-0 away from home last night in their Champion's League Qualifier with Sergio Aguero scoring a hat-trick.  I wonder what the problem is with England goalkeeper Joe Hart?  He cannot get a game in the Premier League so the 29 year old will be joining Everton for £26 million, while City will sign 33 year old Claudio Bravo for £14.5 million...something does not add up.

Apparently Jimmy 'The Whirlwind' White is to go on a diet.  White, who is a big racing man is currently ranked 103 in the world and needs to crack the top 64 to regain his tour card.  I cannot see how losing weight is going to make him play any better - it is not much of an endurance sport!

If you were born on 23rd March maybe you ought to think about getting into training for the 2020 Olympics.  Quite incredibly multiple British Olympic champions Jason Kenny, Sir Steve Redgrave, Sir Chris Hoy and Mo Farrah all share the same birthday.

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Do you know why robots are never anxious?  Because they have nerves of steel!

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