Queen of Chepstow

     Kingston Queen Winner at Chepstow

Kingston Queen put up the performance I had hoped for to win at Chepstow yesterday.  We know she is good and she simply go the job done in her own quiet but very effective style.  She made most of the running or was upsides in front throughout, jumped very well and started quickening the pace from three hurdles out.  She gradually got all her rivals under pressure and bar a slight mistake at the last she was faultless.  She galloped through the line strongly putting distance between herself and the placed horses.  She was back in her stable munching her hay by 4pm, waiting for her tea and no doubt wondering what all the fuss was about!  She is a very likeable mare with lots of ability and I am very excited to see where the rest of this season may take us.

Today we have one runner at Newbury, Thanksforthehelp who runs in the 2.50pm Pertemps handicap hurdle at Newbury and Jack Tudor rides.  This will be his seasonal reappearance after he was due to run at Chepstow last month but we did not run him in the end as the ground was too quick.  He was last in action winning a 25 runner handicap hurdle at Punchestown over a shorter trip but he has won over three miles in the past.  He has gone up eleven pounds for that win which will make things tougher but he has always been a good horse, just not the easiest to train.  We hope there is still room for improvement off of his mark of 127 as he is lightly racds and he seems in good form at home.  Today's race is a competitive eleven runner field but some are better known chasers probably using this as a starting point for other things so I would like to think we have a good each way chance at about 10/1 in the betting.   

Newbury, is just one of three jumps meetings today with racing also at Ludlow and Sedgefield. There was some fantastic racing at Chepstow yesterday with lots of runners and some very interesting novice hurdle races.  There is more of the same at Newbury today and there could be some lovely horses to follow from today's action.  There are two all-weather flat meetings at Chelmsford and Newcastle while in Ireland they have a jumps fixture at Clonmel.

Well done to Hollie Doyle yesterday who got off the mark with a winner on her first day riding over in Hong Kong.  I am sure this will be her first of many which she is based over there for a few weeks.

Last night in the Champions League football, there were wins for Manchester City and Newcastle but there was a 2-2 draw for Chelsea and Barcelona also drew as well.  Wrexham drew 0-0 with Portsmouth in their league game.  Tonight attentions turn to the Europa League with Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa and Crystal Palace all in action.

I will be trying to keep an eye on the golfing action from Abu Dhabi which is already underway, Rory McIlroy and all the top players are over there playing this weekend.

"Do not touch" must be one of the scariest things to read in Braille.

Have a good day.