Long Haul Weekend

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Newbury and Doncaster as well as a couple of all-weather flat fixtures from Lingfield and Newcastle.  The talk of watering at Newbury earlier in the week was clearly premature with Mother Nature taking care of that with a wet day on Wednesday.  The track, which was good/firm in places earlier in the week is now on the soft side of good and should be perfect jumping ground.  There are no runners from the Pond House team today, although the box left this morning on the long Kelso, Sedgefield run.  We will be at several meetings over the course of the weekend so make sure to come back tomorrow to find out more.

Paricolor was unable to add to his four wins this season at Taunton yesterday afternoon as he finished fourth in the 2m3f hurdle under Fergus Gillard.  Although a winner at the track earlier in the season, the course is probably plenty sharp enough for him, whilst the drying ground didn't help either.  I am sure there will be other days for him.

The card at Fairyhouse certainly looks a little lopsided today with six of the eight races maiden hurdles.  I congratulate you if you can find the winners of each of those - it sounds like something akin to a needle in a haystack to me.  It comes as a response to a lack of point-to-pointing in Ireland.

I see that the police are warning against people gathering to watch the racing on Cleeve Hill during the Cheltenham Festival.  The famous hill which overlooks the natural amphitheatre of Cheltenham racecourse provides a fabulous vantage point for ramblers, although police patrols will be looking to break-up anyone gathering there as social distancing measures still forbids people meeting outside until the end of March.

There is a great video about the Cheltenham Festival which includes footage and interviews with David and Tom Scu taken at Pond House which was produced in association with Coral and the Racing Post.  It is now available to watch on Twitter and is certainly worth a look if you have a few minutes.

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It would seem that I was a day out with my three away wins!  Spurs, Everton and Chelsea all won 1-0 away from home, with Chelsea defeating Liverpool at Anfield.  Defending Premiership champions Liverpool had gone 68 games unbeaten at home before their current record breaking run of five successive home defeats in the league began.  The reds may now struggle to finish in the top four which secures a place in Europe.

England were bowled out for 205 in the first innings of the test match cricket against India.  It may not be such a bad total with India currently on 135-5.  A couple of quick wickets for England would certainly make it interesting.

After an early exit from the Players Championship last week, Judd Trump looked in much better form as he cruised into the third round of the Gibraltar Open yesterday with a 4-1 victory over Sunny Akani.  Mark Selby and Kyren Wilson were among other big names to progress.

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What’s the difference between in-laws and outlaws?

Outlaws are wanted.