Jumps Entries

Another glorious start to the day this morning with temperatures already at 16ºc and temperatures set to climb the scales again this week with forecasts predicting it to reach 30ºc by Friday.  There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with flat cards from Nottingham and Carlisle and all-weather action from Lingfield and Chelmsford City.  It's not exactly an inspiring day's action either, with a couple of 0-85 handicaps the highlights.  

The recent heat waves have left the turf very dry and despite their best efforts with watering, some of the tracks are still producing pretty quick ground.  I have to confess that I don't take an awful lot of notice of racing on the all-weather, but during dry spells like this, their surfaces are at their most testing.  I had never really thought about it much, but of course if you go to the beach, it is always easier to walk (I don't do running!) on the damp stuff, rather than the deeper, drier sand...obvious really!

There are no runners from the Pond House team today, although I see that David made a few entries for the weekend at Market Rasen (Duesenberg, Nibras Gold and Kolisi) and Perth (Lady Reset) on Saturday, as well as at Newbury on the flat.  There are more jumps entries closing today, this time at Bangor for next Monday - more news on those tomorrow.

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The Commonwealth Games drew to a close yesterday with a spectacular closing ceremony in the athletics stadium, with Birmingham's own Ozzy Osbourne and his band Black Sabbath having the last word.  England finished an amazing event with a record 176 medals, just two short of the table-topping Australians.  I have to say, I have thoroughly enjoyed the coverage and you won't have to wait long for more athletics action with the European Championships getting underway next week.  With the World Championships only a couple of weeks ago, it does seem to be rather crammed (excuse the pun!) together.

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What is the best way to communicate with a fish?  Drop it a line.