Remastered Redemption?

There are five meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Haydock, Newcastle and Ascot and all-weather flat action from Lingfield and Wolverhampton.  David has three runners at Haydock today; Nordic Combined, Remastered and Poker Play.  Nordic Combined contests the conditional jockeys' handicap hurdle at 11.50am.  He has been a star for the David Pipe Racing Club, winning at Hexham in May and is only 2lbs higher this afternoon.  Fergus Gillard gets on well with him and he has place claims in a competitive handicap.

Remastered runs in the Tommy Whittle Chase at 2.40pm.  He was travelling like the winner of the Ladbrokes Chase at Newbury last time out when coming to grief at the fourth last and whilst this is another hot handicap, it is certainly not as strong a race as the Newbury contest.  He is on the same mark today, loves testing condtions and with a clear round he has an obvious chance to make amends with Tom Scudamore in the saddle.

Our final runner is Poker Play, who runs in the 3m handicap hurdle at 3.15pm.  He is on a feasible mark, 1lb lower than his last handicap success and ran a solid race when runner-up at Ffos Las last month.  He is another that revels on soft ground and has an each-way chance.  Tom Scudamore takes the ride.

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The football schedule has been decimated by postponements today with only two matches taking place.  Aston Villa host Burnley, whilst Leeds are at home to Arsenal.  The Gunners managed to get a good result earlier in the week and it would be no surprise if they were too good for Leeds.

After a promising start to their second innings, England are once again struggling against the Aussies in the second Ashes test.  The visitors have lost four quick wickets for only 20 runs as they are 170-6 at the time of writing, trailing the hosts by 303 runs.

Neil Robertson looked in good nick as he dispatched world number one, Mark Selby 6-3 in their World Grand Prix semi-final.  Robertson will face the winner of today's match between Ronnie O'Sullivan and Stuart Bingham in the final tomorrow.

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What did Frosty’s girlfriend give him when she was mad at him?  The cold shoulder.