Hereford Halloween Runners

There are four meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Hereford and Plumpton and all-weather flat fixtures from Kempton and Wolverhampton.  David has two runners today, Barrier Peaks and Ya Know Yaseff, who both contest the 2m novices' hurdle at Hereford at 3.10pm.  The former showed ability when runner-up in a Chepstow bumper that has worked out well subsequently but was down the field after an absence at Newton Abbot a couple of weeks ago.  He is entitled to improve for that outing, but more is required to figure today.  Fergus Gillard takes the ride.

Ya Know Yaseff was the winner of a point-to-point in Ireland but has finished down the field in a couple of hurdles since arriving and is another who needs to improve on what she has shown so far.  Tom Scudamore is in the saddle.

The best of today's action would appear to come on the all-weather at Kempton (it's not very often you will hear me say that!) as they host a Listed contest at 4.13pm that has some very decent horses in the line-up.  Wild Crusade looks overpriced to me considering he already has a verdict over second favourite Warren Point, is already twice a course winner and with nine runners in the line-up, he could be worth a little each-way.

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There were some surprising results in the football over the weekend, notably Brighton putting four past Chelsea - I did say they could get something from this match, although I was surprised to see them win so comfortably, whilst Liverpool were beaten by Leeds.  I really don't know what to make of the reds...sometimes brilliant, sometimes awful - there is no way they are going to put in a challenge for the league based on this evidence.  Arsenal remain ahead of Manchester City after beating Nottingham Forest 5-0 yesterday.

Max Verstappen was an easy winner of the Mexican Grand Prix yesterday, beating Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Perez.  This was the Dutchman's 14th success of the season - the previous record of 13 was achieved by Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel.  With two more races remaining this season, it is entirely possible that he could extend that yet.

The Champion of Champions snooker gets underway in Bolton today with Mark Selby and John Higgins among those in action at this exclusive tournament.  It is a best of seven format, so there is plenty of potential for surprises in the early stages.  Neil Robertson is the defending champion.

My beloved Minnesota Vikings extended their record to 6-1 this season by beating the Arizona Cardinals at home.  With Green Bay losing, the Vikes are in a commanding lead in their division and that makes for an extremely good weekend for me!

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This will be my final week at Pond House as I have run out of jokes.  I prefer to think of it more as a season finale before I head off to pastures new.  If you are all good, I will reveal my favourite joke this weekend...I am sure both of my readers will be on tenterhooks!