4 Lingfield Runners

There are jumps cards at Lingfiled and Southwell this afternoon as well as an all-weather flat fixture from Newcastle.  There have already been early morning inspections at Southwell and Lingfield this morning and the bad news is that they both have to inspect again.  Lingfield are hopeful while Southwell are optimistic - let's hope that we have a bit of racing to look forward to.  At least the 'most weather' racing from Newcastle goes ahead!  If it all gets the nod David will have four runners at Lingfield; Poisoned Berry, Heath Hunter, Cafe du Paris and Rathealy.

Poisoned Berry runs in the 1.40pm race, a mares' novices' hurdle over two miles.  She had previously won well at Exeter and has to concede a penalty to all of her rivals for that success.  The drop back in trip should not inconvenience and she looks to have a good chance under conditional jockey David Noonan.  Heath Hunter goes in the two mile handicap hurdle at 2.40pm and he had some decent bits of form last term - the soft ground should suit him and he is not without prospects.

I thought that Cafe du Paris ran a nice race at Chepstow last time and he could surprise a few people in the 2m4f veterans' handicap chase at 3.10pm.  The ground should suit Rathealy in the handicap hurdle at 3.40pm and he has fallen to a nice handicap mark but he will need to improve on recent efforts to figure here.

Barry Geraghty wasn't hanging about yesterday afternoon.  J P McManus' retained jockey rode River Frost to victory in the 12.55pm race (his only ride of the day) before jumping on the 3.10pm flight from Gatwick to Ireland.  It is all go in the life of a jockey!

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It shouldn't take long for the Indians to wrap up the third cricket test match.  Our batsmen looked terrible yesterday with captain Alistair Cook out to a straight ball!  I reckon there are at least four players in our side who are not up to international standard.  To my eye, it would appear that all of these one day matches have affected our test performance.

I was taking a look through the list of people who could win the Sports Personality of the Year Award and despite it being an Olympic year there really is only one person in it.  Andy Murray has just enjoyed the best season ever by a British tennis player - he won Wimbledon, Olympic gold and finished the season as the world number one.  At odds of 1/6 he is not exactly an attractive betting proposition but the bookies don't often get it wrong at those prices.

I see that Tiger Woods is a 40/1 chance to win the Hero World Challenge.  It will be his first tournament in 15 months - has he really regressed that far?  The glory days seem like a lifetime ago now.

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Do you know the best way to communicate with a fish?  Drop it a line!

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