Below Zero

Well unfortunately Taunton brought forward their intended morning inspection and abandoned racing for today yesterday afternoon so there is no runners for Pond House.  While raceable on Thursday they were not at any point yesterday after an overnight frost.  With another predicated for Friday night and temperatures not set to rise until 10am to do they weren’t left with much choice.  I have to say once again, we would not have raced here at Pond House yesterday and this morning it is even colder than that at -4c.  

There is once jumps meeting left standing for today at the time of writing so fingers crossed Haydock might get the green light to go ahead.  They passed their Friday check and would have raced yesterday but they are inspecting at 8am this morning.  Their overnight temperatures were not forecast to be too low so we may be lucky and get some jumping to watch.  Their feature races are the Champion Hurdle Trial at 2.05pm and the Peter Marsh Chase at 2.40pm while it is a competitive card throughout.  There are only three runners in the opening Grade 2 novices chase but they are good ones and include Stage Star who has taken to chasing well this season.  Epatante is the short priced favourite for the Champion Hurdle Trial and it would be nice for her to get a deserved first victory of the season with no Constitution Hill in the line up! Her main rival, I Like To Move It has to bounce back from a below par effort at Cheltenham last time and the others in the race would be surprise winners but anything can happen in a horse race!  There are only six runners in the Peter Marsh chase and Fontaine Collonges heads the market but I quite fancy Bristol De Mai to win this race.  He does have to concede weight all round in his advancing years but he is a high class horse who loves the course and testing conditions.  I do think it will be hard for all the runners today and it will depend on who copes with things best.  Although none of the above now matters as I have just heard that Haydock has been abandoned!

Lingfield does have some good flat racing to watch this afternoon while they also race on the all-weather at Southwell and Wolverhampton.  In Ireland they may have some jumps action at Navan but that also has to pass a morning inspection.

In the Australian Open tennis yesterday, unfortunately Britain’s Number 1, Cameron Norrie was knocked out by an up an coming tennis star, Jiri Lehecka.  Norrie was seeded 11 and was hoping to get to the last 16 for the first time but the Brit was not at his best and despite leading 2-1 he went on to lose 6-7, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4.  Andy Murray plays his third round match this morning (08:00) against the Spanish 24^th seed, Roberto Bautista Bagut.

There are six Premier League football matches taking place today and the early kick off match at 12.30pm is Liverpool at home to Chelsea.  Both teams are struggling for form at the moment so both will be desperate for win.  The 5.30pm game is Crystal Palace at home to Newcastle.

My son couldn’t sleep so I told him there are cows sleeping in the field outside.  He said “what has that got to do with anything?”  I replied “Because it’s pasture bedtime!”

Fingers crossed for some jumps racing today and have a good Saturday!