One Runner At Plumpton

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Plumpton and Ayr as well as an all-weather flat fixture from Southwell.  The prize money seems to be getting worse and worse with £35,000 up for grabs at Ayr and only £30,000 at Southwell - no wonder David heads to Plumpton!  He runs Stay Out Of Court in the 3.20pm race - a conditional jockeys' handicap hurdle; a 3m1f handicap hurdle for conditional jockeys.  He has plenty of decent placed form and he looks to have sound prospects once again - David Noonan takes the ride.

Tom Scudamore heads up to Ayr where he has a couple of rides - if he were to win the 2.55pm race, his 10% would amount to £294 - I'm not sure he will have much change out of that for his petrol bill to get up there and back!  Mind you, it does look it has a decent chance.

You have to feel desperately sorry for the connections of Many Clouds after he collapsed and died after winning the Cotswold Chase from Thistlecrack.  He was owned by my old boss Trevor Hemmings who will be in absolute pieces, while the groom Chris Jardine will have seen him everyday for the last five years.  There was a very nice letter from Oliver and Tanya Sherwood, "It is important to remember the good times" - there were certainly plenty of those and hopefully there will be plenty more to come for the Rhonehurst team.

There was some top class racing in Ireland yesterday - the Arkle Trial saw only one finisher with Some Plan landing the spoils, the other three either fell or unseated.  Let's Dance looked impressive in the novices' hurdle and I am sure we will be hearing plenty more of him.

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There were some strange results in the FA 'Reserves' Cup over the weekend - first Liverpool lost and then Watford went the same way.  Furthermore with Lincoln beating Championship leaders Brighton and Sutton United beating Leeds there are two non-league sides through to the last 16.  I do wonder whether some of the big sides really want to be in the FA Cup?

I watched the Carl Frampton versus Leo Santa Cruz fight and it was a great contest.  Santa Cruz won it to make it 1-1 between the pair and you would think that there has to be a decider.  They both looked pretty well battered but they also appeared to be great mates after the fight.  Frampton was very gracious in defeat - just imagine what the next fight in Belfast would be like!

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I tried to visit the Cadbury shop the other day.  Unfortunately I couldn't get anywhere near it as the car park was choc-a-bloc!

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