West Is Best

The stable enjoyed a nice winner over the weekend when Kingofthewest (pictured above) made a successful start to his career under rules in the 2m3f maiden hurdle at Taunton on Saturday.  Runner-up in his only previous start in an Irish point-to-point, he forged ahead in the closing stages under Fergus Gillard to deny the favourite.  This was a good first effort and he can only improve for the experience and he looks a nice prospect going forward.  Leoncavallo ran his usual honest race in the seniors' handicap hurdle, finishing a close third to make it six places from six starts this season.  He is as consistent as they come and deserves to land one of these nice prizes.  Remastered ran a solid fourth in the Grade 2 Peter Marsh at Haydock.

Here we are, deep in the jumps season and there are three all-weather flat meetings taking place this afternoon.  Who thought that one out?  The action comes from Southwell, Kempton and Wolverhampton.  Unsurprisingly, there are no runners from the Pond House team today, with our next possible runners coming at Lingfield (on the all-weather!) on Wednesday.  We declare today at 10am if we run there.

What a tremendous race for the Clarence House at Ascot on Saturday with Shishkin just getting the better of Energumene in a driving finish.  I have to be honest, I thought Shishkin was a good thing, but it was only in the closing stages that he finally got on top.  The rematch is already being hailed as a race for the ages, although having jumped to his left on Saturday, I can only see Shishkin extending his superiority going the other way around.

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With Manchester City only drawing against Southampton on Saturday, Liverpool were able to narrow the gap at the top of the Premier League to 9 points following their 3-1 win at Crystal Palace.  If they convert their game in hand, the gap would be down to six points and considerably more competitive than things were looking a week or two ago.  City manager Pep Guardiola became quite animated when questioned about the prospect shortly after their match.

Well, we are down to four teams in the NFL and it is not going to be Green Bay or Tom Brady's Buccaneers with both sides losing in the divisional rounds over the weekend.  It looks like it's going be the Chiefs against the Rams for me.  The will face the Bengals and the 49'ers in the Championship round next weekend.

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Why did the fish blush?  It saw the  bottom of the ocean.