Flat's Back!

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Kelso and Newbury, whilst the flat returns to the turf today with the opening meeting of the season from Doncaster and a couple of all-weather flat fixtures from Kempton and Wolverhampton.  Add to that the World Cup meeting from Dubai and we have an exciting day of action ahead.  The big race of the day on these shores is the Lincoln handicap over a mile on the Town Moor track.  It is a wide-open race with the market dominated by unexposed four year old's.  The only trouble is, many are having their first run of the season and you don't know how much they have progressed during their winter breaks.  If I had to pick one here it would be Eastern World.  He has already confirmed himself in good order with victory in Dubai and is 3lbs ahead of the handicapper under his penalty.  He is partnered by the excellent James Doyle.

There is some excellent racing from Meydan today as you would expect with some of the eye-watering prize money on offer.  Indeed, on their eight race card, the least valuable races are still worth over £328,000 to the winner.  The big one is the 1m2f Dubai World Cup at 4.50pm and it features runners from all over the world, although Britain is sparsely represented with only outsider Gifts Of Gold trained by Saeed bin Suroor in the line-up (and he is only rarely seen in this country).  It could be a good day for Godolphin - they have the worthy favourite in Mystic Guide, although I may side with another of their runners, Magny Cours, ridden by William Buick.  If he can get on the front end, he could be a difficult horse to pass.

As I eluded to yesterday, it doesn't look to be a classic renewal of the World Cup and the Sheema Classic, (held earlier on the card) has four of the ten runner field rated superior to the top-rated in the big one.

There are no runners from the Pond House team today, although we are back tomorrow with runners at Ascot.  Come back then to find out more.

*****

It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but I am excited to see the return of the F1 season this weekend.  Qualifying gets underway today and will give us the first true indication of where everyone is.  Testing times and the practice sessions from yesterday suggest that Red Bull are right there with Mercedes which is a great achievement considering nobody has been able to get near the Silver Arrows in the last seven years.  McLaren seem to have made a big step with the introduction of the benchmark Mercedes engine in the back of their chasis and it is good to see them back towards the front of the grid following a few barren years.

Neil Robertson produced a sensational performance to beat Mark Selby 10-3 in their semi-final clash in the Tour Championship snooker.  The match lacked the drama of their last meeting with Selby always struggling to get on terms.  He will face either Ronnie O'Sullivan or Barry Hawkins in the final tomorrow.

*****

A man walks into a bar and orders a beer, a double scotch, and a triple vodka.  "I shouldn't be drinking this with what I've got," he says.
"Why?" asks the bartender.  "What have you got?"
"£2.50," replies the man.