Leon At Liverpool

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Aintree and Sedgefield as well as a flat card from Leicester and an all-weather flat fixture from Kempton.  Today is the second day of the Grand National meeting from Aintree and David has one runner; Leoncavallo (pictured above) who contests the 2m½f conditional jockeys' and amateur riders' handicap hurdle at 5.15pm.  He finished an excellent sixth in the Martin Pipe at the Cheltenham Festival last time out, seemingly not quite getting up the hill.  The drop back to this trip should prove no inconvenience and he is 2lbs lower this afternoon.  Fergus Gillard is very good value for his 5lbs and he looks to have solid each-way claims.

Adagio ran another good race to finish second in the Grade One juvenile hurdle yesterday afternoon at Aintree, a terrible blunder at the last hurdle costing him any chance of victory.  He travelled into contention nicely between the last two hurdles and was as short as 1/5 in running as he moved alongside Monmiral but a clattering mistake halted his momentum.  The winner was impressive but the margin of victory was certainly exaggerated.  Regardless, Adagio has proven to be one of the best juveniles of the season, winning a Grade 1 and finishing runner-up in two others.

Umbrigado finished sixth in the Grade One novices' chase.  He was bang in contentions in the home straight, although his jumping was not as good as it has been in his previous starts and he weakened out of contention.  A progressive chaser, there will certainly be other big days for him.

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Manchester United were victorious in their Europa League quarter-final first leg match last night, beating Granada 2-0 away from home.  Meanwhile, Arsenal are going to have to work hard to progress after a stoppage time equaliser meant they only drew 1-1 at the Emirates Stadium against Slavia Prague.

Justin Rose looked good in the first round of the Masters yesterday with a sensational round of 65 putting him four shots clear of the rest of the field on -7.  Enthusiasm for his chances is tempered somewhat by the fact that the Englishman has led the field three times before after the first round but has yet to convert it to success.

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A corgi went to the job centre to look for work and the assistant behind the desk was delighted.  " A talking dog," he enthused.  "I'll fix you up with a job in no time."
After a few minutes on the phone, he declared: "There you are, you start at the circus on Monday."
"That's no good to me," protested the corgi. "I'm a plumber."