Winner at Chepstow!

Kingofthewest after his win yesterday!
It was great to get a nice win at Chepstow yesterday with Kingfthewest who was winning for the first time over fences.  Jack Tudor was banned so Harry Cobden was a more than able substitute and what a ride he gave our eight year old.  I am not into, or don’t really understand betting in running but I imagine he was quite a big price when the field were travelling down the far side of the course.  Cheek pieces replaced the blinkers he had been wearing of late and he wasn’t really on the bridle, but Harry cajoled him along to keep him in the race before getting a good tune and run out of him over the last few fences and he was very strong in the saddle inside the last furlong.  He actually won a little cosily in the end and Harry said he wasn’t totally in love with the ground so it was a nice performance and I am sure this will have done his confidence the world of good.  It was especially nice for his small group of owners who were in attendance to cheer him on.

There are two jumps meetings today at Huntingdon and Wetherby but the stable does not have any runners.  There are two all-weather meetings at Southwell and Newcastle and in Ireland they have jumps action at Gowran Park.  The Irish card features graded action including the Thyestes Chase at 2.50pm.  There are 18 runners in a very competitive looking race.  There are two joint favourites for the race but they are both 8/1 so it shows how open it is! They also have the Grade 2 Molmay hurdle at 2.15pm and this is a more select field with just the five runners but it is packed with quality.  The devilscoachman just shades favouritism over the returning Monkfish.

I was interested to read that the BHA have shelved plans to restrict the number of runners a single trainer can have in a race.  The proposed changes would have restricted trainers to having a maximum of four runners in any class 1 or 2 handicap race.  After gathering feedback from lots of people involved in the sport, it has been decided not to bring in the rule but keep it under review for the time being.

Last  night in the football, Fulham & Liverpool 1-1 (2-3 agg). Liverpool took to dominate as the reds led 2-1 from the first leg and their draw at Craven Cottage was enough to get the job done and set up a Wembley final. 

Tonight it is the return of FA Cup action with the first match in the fourth round between Bournemouth and Swansea.  It kicks off at 7.45pm and it live on the BBC iPlayer.

The Australian Open tennis is reaching the latter stages and Alexander Zverev beat 3-1 Carols Alcaraz to reach the semi-finals where he will play Daniil Medvedev.  In the other semi-final defending champion Novak Djokovic will play Italian fourth seed Jannik Sinner.  The womens semi-finals are Gauff against Sabalenka and Yastremska against Zheng.  I have heard of the names in the first semi-final but the others are new to me!

Lance is an uncommon name nowadays.

But in medieval times people were Lance a lot!

Have a good day!