Two Runners At Fakenham

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with flat action from Chelmsford City, Nottingham and Kempton, while there is a jumps fixture from Fakenham.  David has a couple of runners at the last named meeting; Eamon An Cnoic who is a 7/2 chance for the maiden hurdle at 2.10pm and Carqalin who goes in the 2m7f handicap hurdle at 4.10pm.  Eamon An Cnoic has some decent placed form to his name and looks to hold solid claims, while Carqalin has been allotted top weight of 11-12 - he is an 11/4 chance in the Post and that looks plenty short enough for me on the balance of form.

Thistlecrack put up an impressive performance on his chasing debut at Chepstow yesterday.  I know he was entitled to win with any amount in hand based on his hurdles form, but he jumped like an old handicapper and I bet Tom Scu is embarrassed to take his riding fee and percentage of winnings (on second thoughts, he probably isn't!).  I reckon Luke Harvey could have won on Thistlecrack!  A couple more runs and it will be Cheltenham Gold Cup time.

What about French jockey Edgar Lebaisse?  He won on the favourite at Cholet in North West France yesterday afternoon and on the way to the weighing room he posed for a photograph with a fan and was presented with a bottle of wine.  He took the wine to the jockeys' door and gave it to his valet so was technically in breach of the rules on weighing-in and as such was disqualified.

Don't forget that the Newmarket Sales continues this afternoon and I know that David has done plenty of work on the catalogue searching for the next possible National Hunt star.  If you are interested in joining the ranks of owners at Pond House, do get in touch so we can discuss your requirements.  Above is a picture of Martin at the sales earlier in the week with David Wachman and Gordon Elliott.

*****

Can you believe that agent Mino Raiola received £24 million for brokering the deal that took Paul Dogba to Manchester United?  Talk about a waste of money...I am referring to both the agent and player!

England's cricket selectors have named their sixteen player squad to visit India.  The trouble as I see it is that we do not have  a world class spinner and I think we could struggle on their turning wickets.

I was pleased to get my football double up yesterday with Liverpool and Newcastle and will be looking to reinvest some of my winnings on Sunderland at 4/9 and West Ham at 19/5 - you would think that I would have learned by now!  Chelsea seem to be fielding a weak team (so I am told) so are definitely worth a swerve.

*****

Finally, it occurred to me that telling Mrs Barnes to calm down works about as well as trying to baptise a cat!  Have a nice day...

Tweet