Need More Rain!

There is a jumps card today at Warwick plus three flat fixtures at Musselburgh, Catterick and Kempton.  In Ireland there is a meeting under each code, a flat card at Bellewston and jumping action at Sligo.  The stable does not have any runners.  There are in fact very few runners in all of the races at Warwick which is a bit sad to see but not surprising with the going described as good, good to firm in places.  While this going is not too bad, I imagine those that had runners at the track last week know it is perhaps quicker going than officially described and a lot of trainers are erring on the side of caution. 

One race, the final bumper on the card has a field on nine horses but the rest all have six or less runners and we open with a two runner handicap chase and then a three runner novices handicap chase.  I feel for the racecourse really as there is not much that can be done about it.  They have been watering but unless the watering has been happening consistently all summer like at Worcester and Newton Abbot then you are going to struggle to produce anything other than quick ground.  Dan Skelton has a number of favourites and I expect it to be a good day for that team.  

While we did have a nice amount of rain in September, we need more!  A lot of the rain came earlier in the month and it has been dry again for nearly two weeks, hopefully from a racing perspective, October will be a wet month!  We have had some lovely sunny days here at Pond House but all the time we have been hoping for rain!  Rain is forecast for our area, starting tomorrow, so fingers crossed we get some and quite a bit of it!  With Chepstow just around the corner, with three days of good racing anticipated and what most people seeing as really kicking off the National Hunt season properly, then we need all the rain we can get, fingers crossed!

Aidan O'Brien is set to supplement Minnie Hauk for the Prix de L'arc de Triomphe today and she will be favourite.  She is a triple Group 1 winner this summer and the Ballydoyle team are set to supplement her for 120,000 Euros.  Fillies have traditionally done well in the Arc, with the girls having won ten of the last 17 running's of the race.  Christophe Soumillion when over to Ireland to ride the filly last week and so will partner her in the race with Wayne Lordan set to ride the stable's other runner, Los Angeles.  

Last night in the football it was mixed results for the English teams.  Liverpool lost away to Galatasary while Chelsea won at home 1-0 against Benfica.  Spurs drew 2-2 at home.  The Champions League action this evening see's Manchester City away in Monaco and Newcastle are away to Union St-Gilliose, a team I have not heard of before! Arsenal are at home to Olympiakos and a fixture that caught my eye is Barcelona against PSG at 8pm.

What five letter word becomes shorter when you add two letters to it? 

Yesterday's Answer: December 31st, Today is January 1st. (The day before yesterday I was 21, and next year I will be 24.  When is my birthday?)

Have a good day!