Paricolor Bids For Five

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps action from our local track Taunton and Ludlow, whilst there are all-weather flat fixtures from Southwell and Chelmsford.  David has one runner today; Paricolor (pictured above) who contests the 2m3f selling hurdle at Taunton at 2.30pm.  He has been in tremendous form this season, winning four times in this grade, including at the track.  Conditions should suit once again, winning jockey Fergus Gillard takes a valuable 5lbs off his back and he looks to be the one to beat.

The weights for the Cheltenham handicaps were announced yesterday afternoon so this is when all the trainers will start planning which horses go where as many of the horses hold multiple entries.  The Pond House team has entries in several of the big handicaps as well as Adagio, who is prominent in the market for the Triumph Hurdle.

Talking of handicaps, they don't come any bigger than the Grand National and following Tuesday's scratching stage, Vieux Lion Rouge is now number 37 in the line-up, guaranteeing his place in Aintree's centrepiece on Saturday 10th April.

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I did say to avoid the away match treble yesterday and I was right!  I say I was right, but I couldn't have been much further wrong yesterday with a home win and two draws the final results.  Manchester United looked toothless as they failed to score for a third consecutive match, this time against Crystal Palace.

There are three matches taking place tonight with Fulham versus Spurs, West Brom against Everton and most appetisingly, Chelsea versus Liverpool.  I think given how the others have performed, I will spare you any predictions!

England are in trouble again on day one of the fourth cricket test against India.  Even a Ben Stokes half century doesn't help much as the tourists are languishing on 121 for 5 wickets.

There was another shock in store in the opening round of the Gibraltar Open snooker (held in Milton Keynes, of course) yesterday when world number three, Neil Robertson lost in the first round to little-know Chinese 17 year old Lei Peifan.  Robertson has shown some incredible form of late, but far too sporadically.  He will be wanting to sort that out with the world championships taking place next month.

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I finished building my car yesterday.  I used a motor from a washing machine for the engine.  I can't wait to take it for a spin!