Duo of Runners

    Best Night runs at Newton Abbot Today

Today we have the opening day of Chester's big meeting on the flat plus three jumps cards so plenty of action to watch.  The jumps racing comes from Kelso, Newton Abbot and Fontwell and we have two runners, one at Newton Abbot and one at Fontwell this evening.  We were due to have three runners but Purple Owl is not quite right so he will wait for another day.  Best Night runs in the 3.50pm at Newton Abbot with Harry Cobden on board, a mares handicap hurdle over two miles.  She is a course and distance winner but needs to bounce back from a below par effort at Taunton last time.  She is a likeable filly who won twice last season and I think the ground at Taunton last time was not too her liking and she never looked happy from an early stage.  They had put quite a bit of water on the track to make it safe and I am not sure she enjoyed conditions.  With some natural help from above, Newton Abbot have not done much watering and it is described as good, good to soft in the places which will suit.  We are about fourth best in the betting and hopefully she won't be too far away.

Savanna Storm makes his career debut in the bumper at Fontwell this evening at 8.12pm and Jack Tudor rides.  He is a nice youngster who shows ability and a good attitude at home and has done everything asked of him so far.  He has been on an away day gallop but this will be like his first day at school and so it will be a big learning experience.  There are a few newcomers in his race and we are about 5/1 in the betting.  Hopefully he can show us on the racecourse what he does at home and run well.

The Cheshire Oaks is one of the feature races on the card at Chester today and in recent times it has been dominated by Aidan O'Brien.  He has a couple of representatives in the five runner field this afternoon at 2.35pm and it appears Amelia Earhart holds the best chance with Ryan Moore on board.  She is 5/2 second best in the market behind the John and Thady Gosden trained, I am The One who is a very short priced favourite and it appears she could be a bit special.  She has won her only start to date and is looking to remain unbeaten in this Listed race.  Benvenuto Cellini is looking to enhance his Derby claims by winning the 3.05pm Chester Vase Group 3 race this afternoon.  The colt from Ballydoyle already has some impressive form in the book and is 4/9 to win today.

There is also one other flat meeting today, an all-weather card at Kempton.

Yesterday, Mancero fared best of our runners to be fourth, not able to reverse the form with the winner of his previous race who won again.  Penn Avenue looked in trouble mid way through her race but then did stay on again to finish a never nearer sixth and may want further on this better ground.  American Sniper showed up well for a long way before weakening and again I think he found this trip a bit sharp on this track.  All are fine this morning which is the main thing.

Arsenal have reached the Champions League final for the first time in over 30 years with a 1-0 win at home to Atletico Madrid.  Tonight we have the second semi-final between Bayern Munich and Paris St Germain.  It was a thriller in Paris last week so hopefully we can have more of the same this evening.  Bayern have home advantage this time but are a goal behind after the match finished 5-4 to PSG last week.  

Did you know French fries weren't actually first made in France?

They were originally cooked in Greece.

Have a good day!