Two Sunday Runners

  Gentleman Toboot runs at Leicester Today

It may be a slightly quieter day on the racing front compared to the last couple of days but there is still plenty of action to watch and we have two runners, one under each code.  Gentleman Toboot runs over hurdles at Leicester with Jack Tudor riding while Bashful runs on the flat at Southwell with Rob Hornby on board.  Gentleman Toboot is looking for his hat-trick of wins over hurdles following on from successes at Newton Abbot and Exeter this season.  He heads the weights in the two mile handicap hurdle at 3.32pm and faces just three rivals.  The form of his Exeter win was franked yesterday with the runner up winning impressively at Kempton and I would be disappointed if we get beaten here.  He is a very good horse who will be stepped up in class next time.

Bashful Boy runs in the two mile staying handicap hurdle at 3.50pm and I would hope he also has a good chance.  He returned to form on the all-weather last time at Kempton to be a fast finishing third under Rob Hornby who has won on him before.  He recommended Southwell as a course that would suit Bash and we head here with a good each way chance.  He hasn't won for a while but the ability is still there and he wants to do it so I hope he will not be too far away.

There are just the two jumps meetings today at Leicester and Catterick while in Ireland their Christmas meetings continue at Leopardstown and Limerick.  They have two Grade 1 races at Leopardstown with the Christmas hurdle up first at 1.55pm.  The betting suggests it is a two horse race between Ballyburn who is just favourite ahead of Teahupoo and while there are definitely others in the race who can win, Teahupoo would be my selection for the race.  The Savills Chase follows at 2.30pm and this looks a fascinating staying chase.  Gold Cup winner Inothewayurthinkin is favourite from former Gold Cup winner Galopin Des Champs and my heart is with the latter who has been a star now for many years and I would love to see him win this race again.

There are two Premier League matches this afternoon with Sunderland against Leeds at 2pm and Crystal Palace play Spurs at 4.30pm. 

I am off to the rugby this afternoon to watch Exeter Chiefs play Leicester at 3pm.

The more you weight, the harder you are to kidnap.

Stay safe, eat cake!

Have a lovely Sunday everyone.