Gwen Wins at Exeter

      Gwencily Berbas Wins at Exeter

Gwencily Berbas rolled back the years yesterday afternoon and put up a lovely staying performance to win the Devon National at Exeter under Philip Armson.  He had been struggling a little for form this season but the handicapper had reduced his mark accordingly and he had shown a liking for Exeter as he was a previous course and distance winner at the track last season.  He is a lovely old boy who is as enthusiastic as a three year old at home and he really wants to please you with everything he does.  Reverting to hold up tactics yesterday he travelled and jumped really well throughout and Philip crept into it nicely turning for home and he stayed on strongly from three out to score nicely.  It was good prize money on offer and it warms the heart to see these old staying chasers enjoying their racing and winning races.

I thought D’jango also ran another solid race to be fourth.  He again travelled and jumped well at the head of affairs until he was a little slow at one down the back the last time which put him on the back foot slightly.  He stuck to his guns really well however under James Best and after dropping back to fifth they regained fourth on the run in and it was a good performance.

Things did not quite go so well at Warwick where Pachacuti weakened out of things from the second last to be unplaced and all looked good for Panic Attack until she got very tired just before the last fence.  She had raced a bit keenly and set a strong gallop and I thought three miles would be perfect for her but it appears like she perhaps did not stay.

Today we have one runner over jumps at Chepstow, Thanksforthehelp and one runner on the flat, Bashful Boy at Lingfield.  Borntobealeader was also declared to run at Lingfield but he is a non-runner.  Thanksforthehelp runs in the Pertemps handicap hurdle qualifier at 3.07pm with Kevin Brogan on board.  He is a horse we really like at home and he has only had the one run this season where he disappointed at Wetherby.  He has had a wind operation since and tries the three mile trip for the first time.  We have entered him in the Final at the Cheltenham Festival next month but he would need to finish in the first four to qualify so hopefully he can run well and then we can at least think about heading to Prestbury Park.  He is about 15/2 third best in the betting.

Bashful Boy runs in the 1m7f flat handicap at 4.25pm with Rob Hornby on board.  He ran a nice race over 1m4f on his first run on the flat for us last time, staying on for fourth and we think he will like the extra distance this afternoon.  There are only five runners and we are second best, 5/2 in the betting so I like to think he has a good chance.

There is also jumps action today at Newcastle where their feature race is the Eider chase and at Kempton they have the Coral handicap chase. In Ireland they have jumps racing at Fairyhouse and there is also racing on the all-weather at Chelmsford so there is plenty of racing action to keep us entertained.

There are plenty of Premier League matches today and the Six Nations rugby also returns this weekend.  Ireland travel to Italy for the 2.15pm start while I am looking forward to watching Wales versus England at 4.45pm.

In the cricket in New Zealand, England got off to a terrible start with the bat and were 21-3 but then a magnificent 184 not out from Harry Brook and a 101 not out from Joe Root have put us in a dominant position after day 1.

A truck loaded with Vicks Vaporub overturned on the highway.  Amazingly, there was no congestion for 8 hours! Have a good day!