Bumper Boxing Day

    No Walkover run at Chepstow Today

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, we are back racing today with a Bumper day of racing action and lots to looks forward to!  I am not having the best start to the day as I wrote all this and lost it so I cam cross and this effort may not be as good!  The racing action starts early today so don't miss anything!  There are ten jumps meetings in Britain and Ireland with 67 races and there is also a flat meeting at Wolverhampton.  The feature meeting is of course at Kempton with the King George and we have two runners at Aintree and Sedgefield.

Red Wine Supernova makes her stable and professional debut in the 3.10pm bumper at Sedgefield and Rian Corcoran rides.  She has just had the one start so far in an Irish point to point where she fell when leading at the second last fence.  She is a very likeable mare and shows all the same qualities as Kingston Queen as they are both by the same sire, Kingston Hill.  Kingston Queen won this race last year and I am hoping Red Wine Supernova can win today.  There are only four runners but it is a tricky looking race.  We are currently joint favourite with the Mickey Bowen trained Eskylady.  That horse fetched £260,000 at the sales after winning her Irish point to point and looks the one we have to beat.  I like our mare however and think she can win but even if she doesn't she is very much one to look forward to for the future.

No Walkover runs in the bumper at Aintree at 3.25pm and Jack Tudor rides.  He won his only start for us at Chepstow last time showing a great attitude in a finish.  It will be tough today to give away a penalty to some useful looking rivals but he is a horse we like a lot.  The ground may not be as soft as ideal but he should be fine and I hope they will go a decent pace early in the race which will suit better than last time.  At 11/4 in the betting I wouldn't put anyone off of having a bet on him.

The first race of the day in Ireland comes from Down Royal at 11.40am while Wetherby has the first race of the day this side of the Irish Sea at 11.52am.  Leopardstown is the feature race meeting in Ireland with Romeo Coolio the short priced favourite for the Grade 1 Novices chase at 2.20pm.  They also race at Limerick.  I think it will be a good day for Nicky Henderson at Kempton with Sir Gino winning the Christmas hurdle at 1.55pm and Jango Baie is my selection for the King George at 2.30pm.  

There are plenty of other good races and interesting horses running today, too many to mention here but can I suggest you get your jobs done early and be sat in front the TV ready for the feast of races early!  

Kempton has it's first race at 12.45pm, while Aintree gets underway at 12 noon.  Wincanton is a little later at 12.53pm, with Market Rasen at 12.40pm and Fontwell is even earlier at 11.57am and Sedgefield at 11.45am.

It is unusually quiet on the football front today with just the one Premier League match, Manchester United play Newcastle at 8pm.

It was an interesting first day in the cricket in Australia overnight from Melbourne.  England bowled Australia out for 152 runs but then were bowled out themselves for 110!  Australia went into bat again and are 4-0 after one over at the end of play.  The second day gets underway at 11.30pm this evening.

Enjoy a great Boxing Day everyone and I hope you find a few winners!