Double at Newbury!

     Neon Moon after winning yesterday!
Neon Moon returned to form with a bang to win at Newbury yesterday under Jack Tudor.  After winning on seasonal reappearance at Ludlow he had been a little disappointing on his last few runs, but largely due to the heavy ground he has been running on and he does enjoy better ground which he got for the first time in ages yesterday.  That, combined with the fact he was back down to his last winning mark,124 played its part.  Jack gave him a patient ride and he was always doing enough when going to the front just after the third last fence.  The handicapper will once again have his say but I am sure he can follow this up on some decent ground again as on his day he is a pretty good horse.

Kepagge doesn’t look like he is enjoying jumping the fences at the moment and a slow jump at the cross fence put him on the back foot.  I would imagine we might look at going back over hurdles again as he is still working as well as ever at home.

Bumpy Johnson was our last runner of the day yesterday and showed a great return to form, he enjoyed the better going yesterday and the handicapper had given him a little bit of help. It was a great front running ride from Jack and a great result, providing us with a double on the day for the team!

Today we just have the one runner, in the lucky last at Newbury.  First Lord Du Cuet runs in the veterans chase over 2m7f at 5.00pm and Jack Tudor rides.  He has the blinkers back on for the first time in a long time today and I think he will enjoy the drier ground as well.  He wasn’t beaten that far at Taunton last time when a stumble after the last fence did not help his cause.  He is about 10/1 in the betting and it looks a fairly competitive race but our ten year old will like the course and I think he has a good each way chance.

As well as jumping at Newbury today there is action over the obstacles at Bangor.  Today is the first day of the return of flat action to the turf at Doncaster.  There are two all-weather flat cards at Wolverhampton and Newcastle in Ireland they race over jumps at Navan.   The feature flat race is the Lincoln over the straight mile has a big field of 21 runners at 3.35pm.  Liberty Lane heads the betting at 4/1 but it looks wide open and competitive, good luck if you are trying to find the winner – just make sure they like soft ground!

There is some good prize money on offer on the Newbury card and both the Nicholls and Skelton teams will be hoping to win as much of it as they can! Skelton has the favourite, Heltenham for the feature chase on the card but Nicholls has the favourite for the Sales Bumper which has more prize money on offer to the winner.

Apologies for my deliberate mistake in the football yesterday – I wrote about Wales v Finland and got my days mixed up – it was a good win for Wales on Wednesday evening in the end!  England are in action today and play Brazil in a friendly at 7pm.  France against Germany also looks and interesting match this evening, while there are eleven International friendlies being played in total today. 

There are Women’s Six Nations rugby matches today with France v Ireland at 2.15pm and Wales v Scotland at 4.45pm.  Exeter Chiefs play at home in the Premiership against Newcastle Falcons at 3.00pm.

Somebody should market a beer called “occasionally”.

So when asked, I can say “I only drink occasionally”!

Have a great Saturday!

    Bumpy Johnson after his success!