No Jumping Wednesday

Unfortunately there is no jumps meetings today with both Ayr and Bangor having already been abandoned.  We were due to have two runners at Bangor, Bumpy Johnson and Eden Du Houx but they will be instead be doing their usual home routine this morning!  There are two flat meetings on the all-weather at Kempton and Newcastle to keep us entertained and in Ireland they race at Dundalk.  Fingers crossed there should be no problems for Taunton tomorrow where we have six runners at our local track.  It is the best morning of the week so far weather-wise, but the rain is set to return this evening I am told!

Yesterday, entries closed early for both the Becher chase and the Welsh National and we have entries in both.  The Becher chase is of course over the National fences at Aintree a race that the gallant Vieux Lion Rouge won twice and finished runner up as well and this year it takes place on Saturday 9^th December.  We have three horses entered – recent Exeter winner Make Me A Believer, new French recruit Placenet and West Wales National runner up, Sidi Ismael.  We have five entries in the Welsh Grand National to be run at Chepstow on Wednesday 27^th December.  First Lord Du Cuet, Iceo Madrik, Make Me A Believer, Only the Bold and Placenet make up are our quintet of entries.  A lot can happen between now and race day but if you are not in it you cannot win it so we will see what happens!

I see yesterday a lucky punter won £77,000 from a £3 Lucky 15 bet at Lingfield – that is my sort of bet but I have never even come close to winning! The bet included two huge price winners winning at 150/1 and 125/1.  Ask Her Out set the ball rolling by winning at 150/1, followed by Celtic Art winning at 18/1, Mister Who placing at 5/1 and Theyseekhimthere completing the bet by winning at 125/1.  Pretty incredible with the shortest price one typically being the only one not to win but well done to the lucky person from Manchester. 

I was also heartened to read that the racing community has come together to raise in excess of £50,000 for Graham Lee on a JustGiving page set up by his daughter Amy.  The description on the fundraising page says: "The Injured Jockeys Fund is an incredible charity which will be there every step of the way for Dad's recovery. Anything at all is appreciated. Thousands of people have either posted, commented or shared on social media, so if everyone was to donate £1 it would make a huge difference." Many jockeys, trainers, owners and the general public have contributed and if you are interested in doing so you can click on the link below. 

https://www.justgiving.com/page/amy-lee-1699871461293?checkoutMode=Headless

My friend Ty came first in the Beijing marathon, but he wasn’t given the gold medal.  The Chinese authorities refused to recognise Ty won! Have a lovely day.