Worcester Duo

We have two runners today at Worcester, Order of the Dance and Harry Junior.  They run in the final two races on the card, in the 2 divisions of the 2m4f handicap hurdle.  Callum Pritchard claiming five pounds rides Order of the Dance in the 4.20pm.  He is running with a seven pound penalty after his win at Ffos Las last week on stable debut and as long as the run doesn't come too soon I think he will take all the beating.  He was impressive in victory last week and with today's jockey's claim it means he is only two pounds higher than for that win the other day and it will be the last time he can run in this grade of race.  The track and ground should suit and he is currently 9/4 favourite for the race.  It is obviously a shame for our young conditional jockey Rian Corcoran that he is missing out on the ride on Order of the Dance today.  He is out of action at the moment following a fall at Newton Abbot on Saturday but is on the mend and hopefully will be back soon.

Harry Junior makes his handicap debut in the 4.53pm race with Jack Tudor riding.  Our five year old is a lightly race big horse who has not shown much in his starts to date but there have been excuses for this and he is a different horse this time around after doing a lot of growing up during the summer.  He got tired on his seasonal reappearance at Worcester last time out but travelled and jumped well for a long way.  We know the course is suitable and he likes the ground so I hope he has scope for improvement off his rating of 81.  This division of the race looks competitive, like the first but I would like to think with the step up in distance will suit and that he won't be far away come the finish.

Worcester is the only jumps meeting today and they have a very competitive card with lots of runners.  There are two flat meetings at Newmarket and Kempton and in Ireland they race on the flat at Navan.

Leanne, Jack and I came back from the sales empty handed yesterday though we were the under bidders on one lot.  We have a good time looking at all the horses and Jack is back to the catalogues today with Newmarket and two online sales all coming up.

Last night, there were wins for all three of the Premiership teams in the Champions league.  Arsenal were easy 4-0 winners at home to Atletico Madrid, it was the same for Newcastle who were 3-0 winners over Benfica and Manchester City were 2-0 winners away to Villarreal.  Tonight, it is the turn of Chelsea, Spurs and Liverpool so let's hope for more of the same results.

The England women's cricketers are in action today against Australia in the World Cup.  England are the only unbeaten team in the competition so far but this promises to be their toughest test.  Both teams have already qualified for the semi-finals so the result doesn't really count for anything but neither team will want to lose to have the psychological advantage.  The game gets underway at 10.30am British time.

What is worse than finding a worm in your apple?

Half a worm!  Have a good day!