Two Meetings Sunday!

Today we have two runners, one at Doncaster and one at Huntingdon.  First Lord Du Cuet travels to Doncaster to run in the conditional jockeys veterans handicap chase at 3.15pm and Gearoid Harney rides.  He has run well the last twice finishing second at Market Rasen and then fourth in a slightly better race at Kempton last time.  It is a valuable race for the grade and it is a competitive ten runner field, but he is in good form at home and I don’t see why he can’t be involved in the finish.  He is about 8/1 in the betting, will prefer the slightly better going today and with Gearoid taking six pounds off he has a good chance.

Chauffeur Driven runs at Huntingdon in the 4.15pm handicap hurdle and Jack Tudor rides.  He takes a big step up in trip on his handicap debut but he has form in an Irish point to point and Huntingdon is a fairly tight track.  He won’t mind conditions and even though he carries top weight, it looks a suitable race for him to run well.  He has shown promise in novice hurdles and I wouldn’t swap him at about 5/1 in the betting.

So we have just the two jumps meetings today at Doncaster and Huntingdon and in Ireland they have a good card at Leopardstown.  On the all-weather they race at Newcastle with racing getting underway at 4.52pm.  

Fingers crossed there is point to point action today at Charlton Horthorne, but the weather is once again causing havoc with the fixture list.  Martin McIntyre was due to be in action between the flags at Didmarton yesterday but that was called off due to overnight snow.  There were other meetings called off as well this weekend but fingers crossed for a drier week ahead and there will be more local action next weekend at Cothelstone on Saturday and Buckfastleigh on Sunday. 

The Cheltenham Festival is now just over a week away and the countdown is well and truly underway.  There was of course the news about Constitution Hill and his poor gallop at Kempton last week, with the story still rumbling on and they will announce further news on Monday after another blood test.  Champion Bumper ante-post favourite Maughreen trained by Willie Mullins will miss the Festival after suffering a slight set back over the last few days - I don’t feel too sorry for Willie however, as he has plenty of back up and potential winners in the race still!

There are just the two Premier League football matches this afternoon with slightly different kick-off times than normal.  Burnley play Bournemouth at 1pm while it is the big Manchester derby at 3.30pm with United away to City.  As many of you will know, I am a United fan but I don’t hold out much hope of a red victory this afternoon!

I went to watch a different sport on Friday evening, I went to see Team Bath play Severn Stars in the Super League Netball.  This is the second time I have been up and I highly recommend a visit if you like live sport, it was a fiercely competitive match but Bath were well and truly put in place by the visitors.

My husband has been missing for six days now.

Police said to prepare for the worst.

So I went to the charity shop to get his clothes back!

Happy Sunday!