Newbury Runner

       Jurancon runs at Newbury Today

The weekend is back and it is a busy Saturday with plenty of racing going ahead. The jumps cards come from Newbury, Kelso and Doncaster, while the all-weather action is being coming from Southwell and Newcastle both with evening cards. In Ireland, they are jumping at Navan.

We head to Newbury with Jurancon who runs in the 3:05pm Handicap Hurdle over 2miles ½f with Jack Tudor in the saddle. He returns to the track after winning nicely last time out, he has form on softer conditions so that should be fine for him today.  It is a tricky little race but this is his first try in a handicap and we hope he is well treated off a mark of 127.  I would hope he will take all the beating.

King Turgeon was due to run at Doncaster, but he unfortunately a non-runner. Nothing too much to worry about but he has a sore foot so it was in his best interests not to go today.  He does have an entry in the Ultima at Cheltenham and providing he recovers well enough over the weekend there is no reason why he shouldn't be able to go there if we want to.  Yesterday at Newbury, Pachacuti ran a much more promising race and he looked a lot happier and travelled better throughout. He galloped all the way to the line and it was nice to see him return to form.

Itseemslikeit didn’t always jump with fluency and just couldn’t quite quicken when things turned for home. The ground looked to get hard work towards the end of the day. Last night at Southwell Ocean Heights ran and it was an odd race how things panned out but there will be easier opportunities for him in the future.

It was great news for young Irish jockey Jack Kennedy as he was given the all clear to return to riding before the Cheltenham Festival with his comeback scheduled for Leopardstown on Monday. He had been out of action since the end of November after suffering his sixth leg break so I am sure he will be keen to get back into the winners enclosure soon!

Plenty of FA Cup action being brought to the screens today with Crystal Palace vs. Millwall and Preston vs. Burnley who both kick off at 12:15pm. The later games come from Bournemouth vs. Wolves at 3pmand Man City vs. Plymouth as late as 5:45pm.

I read a book on anti-gravity - I could not put it down!

Have a great weekend!