Un Temps Hennessy Runner

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Newbury, Newcastle, Doncaster and Bangor while there is an all-weather flat card at Wolverhampton.  Of course, the main fixture of the day is at Newbury where the highlight is the Hennessy Gold Cup, a race that David won in 2008 with Madison du Berlais.  I will be heading up to Newbury with David and Martin to watch our runner, Un Temps Pour Tout in the big one.  As you would expect, it is fiercely competitive and Un Temps has to carry second top weight - the Post make him a 9/1 shot and he looks to have a live chance to me.  Un Temps is a class act - a French Champion Hurdle winner and a Cheltenham Festival winner last season...furthermore, he looked good when making a winning reappearance at Aintree last time and should have come on for the run.  It is 8 years since Madison won the Hennessy, it is about time that David won it again!

It is a big day for stable jockey Tom Scudamore - not only does he ride our Hennessy runner, he also rides Gold Cup favourite Thistlecrack in the 12.55pm race.  He is too short to back at 1/7 but it is good to see this exciting novice chaser in action once again.

Meanwhile, up at Newcastle David runs Katkeau in the Rehersal Chase at 3.30pm.  I saw this one school earlier in the week and he jumped very well - David Noonan takes 3lbs off his back and he looks to have each way claims...providing the track passes an early morning inspection!

There was an impressive performance from the Nicky Henderson trained Jenkins at Newbury yesterday.  He looks as though he can go on to much better things.  Meanwhile, northern-based jockey Brian Hughes continues in great form - he has ridden 29 winners so far this month and bookmakers make him a 50/1 chance to match the monthly total of A P McCoy who rode 41 winners in May 2014.  He still has some way to go to catch recently crowned champion flat jockey Jim Crowley who rode 45 winners in September of this year.  The bookies don't give a lot away do they?

*****

England are struggling on the first day of third test cricket match.  They won the toss and decided to bat but the pitch looks like a minefield and they have reached only 152-5.  I think 300 runs from either side would be a good score on this wicket.

The top four in the Premier League are playing today so there is some good football to look forward to.  I will be backing Chelsea at home to Spurs at 3/4 and will be doubling them with Leicester at 10/11 to beat Middlesbro.

It didn't take long for the coaching offers to start rolling in and I see that Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez has offered Steven Gerrard a position in his back room staff.  Remember Benitez was the former Liverpool manager and he clearly realises what an asset Gerrard would be...come on Liverpool, pull your fingers out before it is too late!

*****

Mrs Barnes bought me a £20 cinema voucher for my birthday which was really sweet of her...it meant that I could buy a small coke!  Have a nice weekend...

Tweet