Three Near Misses!

It was one of those days yesterday.  Unfortunately all three of our stable runners finished second - over at Hereford I thought that the ground (which looked pretty testing) had gone against Barton Stacey and he probably ran okay to fill the runner-up position.  The going at Exeter on the other hand was officially described as good/firm although looking at the times of the races (all considerably slower than standard), it couldn't have been that quick...either that, or there were some very moderate horses at the Devon track.  I thought that Trop Fort and Dukes Art both performed creditably in defeat under Conor O'Farrell and I am sure that David will be able to find a suitable opportunity for them in the near future.  The problem for Dukes Art is that he will be racing from a 7lbs higher mark in future handicaps, so he looks like he could do with some assistance from the official assessor.

We have no runners this aftenoon despite there being jump racing at Ludlow and Wincanton.  Ludlow's going is currently good (good/firm in places), while Wincanton is firm (good/firm in places) - the latter description goes some way to explaining why there are only twenty-six runners on the card.

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What is going on with the weather?  I was watching the news last night and saw places in England under several inches of snow, yet down here there is a drought warning in place and a hosepipe ban in operation!  They say that we have just endured the dryest winter in history - I wonder how these water companies would manage in a hot country?  Let's hope that the race tracks have their own watering holes - our local golf course has just started drilling for water, so things must be serious.

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Chelsea did well to reach the semi-finals of the Champions League as they knocked out Benfica 3-1 on aggregate last night.  They now take on Barcelona in the next round for which they are 4/1 shots - that gives you some idea of the task that facest them.