One Kempton Runner

We have three meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps action from Kempton and Ludlow as well as an all-weather flat card from Chelmsford City.  David has one runner today as Iniciar contests the two mile conditional jockeys handicap hurdle at Kempton at 3.40pm.  He has top weight to carry of 11-12 owing to his easy win at Worcester last time although conditional jockey David Noonan takes a handy 3lbs off his back.  He will need to improve to land this from a 12lbs higher mark but he has a progressive profile so that is not out of the question.  Meanwhile stable jockey Tom Scudamore has picked up three outside rides at Ludlow and he looks to have some reasonable chances.

What an exciting race at Haydock for the Betfair Chase on Saturday.  Cue Card was the very impressive winner although he did have a fitness advantage over former Gold Cup winner Coneygree.  He will definitely come on for the outing, although if they were to meet again in the King George I think I would still rather be on Cue Card.

I was watching the racing in Ireland yesterday and the weather at Cork and Punchestown became atrocious with thick fog meaning you could hardly make out any of the runners.  You are supposed to be able to see one fence or hurdle to the next and I am not convinced that would have been the case yesterday.

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I hope a few of you followed me and backed Andy Murray to finish the year as the world number one ranked player.  He confirmed his standing with a 6-3 6-4 victory over former number one Novak Djokovic.  He seems to have a new belief in just how good he is and is believing at last.  Perhaps Djokovic is on the downgrade a little - could this be Murray's time to shine at last?

Gareth Southgate goes for his job interview at the FA today for the England bosses job.  He seems to be the only candidate they are seeing so he must have a good chance of getting it!  I don't see that it is really going to matter who is in charge as we are just not good enough to challenge for major championship honours.  Historically the players seem to have taken very little notice of their manager...just look at Wayne Rooney he was told to go to bed but just went out and got blind drunk instead, and that is from a senior player who is supposed to know better!

Our cricketers didn't fare too well in the second test, losing to India.  We could do with a Boycott or Bailey type of batsman who will occupy the crease for prolonged periods of time.

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I tried to buy some tennis balls on the internet last night but every time I tried, the site just kept crashing.  It must have been a problem with their server!  Have a nice day...

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