Cartmel Runners En Route

There is a busy day in store with six meetings taking place this afternoon.  The action comes over the jumps at Stratford and on the flat at Brighton, Carlisle, Chepstow, Haydock and Pontefract.  The jumps fixture at Stratford is for hunter chasers, so unsurprisingly, David does not have any runners on the card.

There may not be any runners from the Pond House team today, but the lorry has already set off with the horses for tomorrow's card at Cartmel where we will have three runners.  Come back then to find out more.

David enjoyed a productive couple of days at the Newmarket sales and has returned with more exciting prospects for the new season; Irish point-to-point winner, Royal Defender, who is son of a full sister to the stable's high class hurdler/chaser, Kings Palace and Sizing Pottsie, who was a Grade 2 winner over fences in Ireland.  I am sure you will be hearing plenty more of them once the core part of the season gets underway.

Sir Michael Stoute's Bay Bridge ran out a most taking winner of the Brigadier Gerard Stakes under Ryan Moore at Sandown last night, winning the 1m2f contest by 5 lengths from favourite, Mostahdaf.  Making his seasonal debut, the four year old looks like a typical improver for the trainer and will surely be stepping up to Group 1 company sooner rather than later.

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It wasn't a great day for the Brits in France, with Dan Evans losing his second round French Open match, citing a chest infection for his below-par performance.  Meanwhile former ladies' champion Simona Halep suffered a mid-match panic attack.  The Romanian began struggling for breath in the second set, before going on to lose her match.  The seeds in the ladies' tournament have been decimated, with only three of the top ten remaining.  Having said that, number one seed, Iga Swiatek looks in imperious form and has now won 44 of her last 45 sets and is very much the one to beat.

First practice for this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix gets underway today.  One of the highlights of the F1 calendar, more for the atmosphere and glamour rather than the racing, the track is so narrow, it is almost impossible to pass on.  F1 bosses Liberty Media have considered axing the race from their calendar, in order to replace it with races from elsewhere.  I believe that would be a catastrophic mistake as the race remains the jewel in the crown of the sport.

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My wife left me because of my obsession with pasta. I'm feeling cannelloni right now.