Two Lingfield Runners

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Lingfield and Taunton as well as all-weather flat fixtures from Wolverhampton and Chelmsford City.  David has two runners today; Ocean Heights and Doyen La Lutte who both run at Lingfield.  Ocean Heights makes his hurdling debut in the 2m novices' hurdle at 1.45pm.  A bumper winner for his previous trainer, he has run very well in two starts on the flat since joining the Pond House team.  He has schooled nicely at home and looks to have each-way claims in what looks a competitive race for it's type.  Tom Scudamore is in the saddle.

Our other runner is Doyen La Lutte (pictured above), who contests the 2m3½f mares' maiden hurdle at 2.47pm.  A point-to-point winner in Ireland, she ran very well on her first start over timber at Exeter a fortnight ago and would have gone even closer but for hanging left after the last.  She won't have the opportunity to do that this afternoon on this left-handed track and she appears to have a decent chance under Tom Scudamore.

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There was another good night for the Brits in Europe last night as both Manchester City and Liverpool were victorious in their Champions League clashes.  Liverpool beat Porto 2-0, but the best performance of the night came from City, who came from a goal down with 40 minutes to play to beat Paris St Germain 2-1.  Leicester City, West Ham, Rangers and Celtic all play tonight in Europa League action.

There were wins for Ronnie O'Sullivan, Mark Selby and Mark Williams in the UK Open snooker yesterday, although there was no such luck for seven-time former world champion Stephen Hendry, who was beaten 6-1 by Thailand's Thepchaiya Un-Nooh.  Hendry's opponent became only the fourth man in history to hit five century breaks in a best of eleven match.  You have little chance of beating scoring of that calibre, but the glory days when Hendry used to do that to his opponents are well and truly over.  Players such as Shaun Murphy may bemoan the amateurs competing, but at least they are on an upward trajectory.  Personally I object more to the likes of Jimmy White and Stephen Hendry being gifted tour cards as a result of former glories.

Defending champion Neil Robertson and Judd Trump are among those in action today.

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Did you hear about the limbo champion who walked into a bar?  He was disqualified.

What's the difference between ignorance and apathy?  I don't know and I don't care.