With no proper jumps racing to get stuck into I find myself reduced to trawling twitter for a bit of lunchtime entertainment, and quickly stumbled across a quote from @VictorChandler regarding Saturday’s Manchester United v Liverpool lunchtime kick-off, with the Gibraltar based firm offering what looks to be a very appealing 7/2 about United full [...]

We’ll head north of the border and up to Ayr for the best bet of the day on Monday, with Irish trainer Jim Dreaper’s Radharc Na Mara boasting strong claims in a weak 3m 1f handicap chase at 2.20pm. She would have won at Fairyhouse at the start of the month has she stayed upright, [...]

There’s no doubting the headline act at Leopardstown on BHP Insurance Champion Hurdle day, as the covers come off reigning Champion Hurdle winner Hurricane Fly at 2.30pm, live on RTE2. Granted he hasn’t been seen since his majestic win at Punchestown in the Rabobank Champion back in May (268 days ago), but this is a [...]

Four consecutive pivotal weekends lie in wait as the Cheltenham Festival draws ever closer, and here in Leopardstown tonight there’ll be more than a couple of owners dreaming of heading to Gloucestershire in mid-March with a tilt at weekend Festival sponsor Boylesports’ 100,000 euro bonus still intact – that’s a cash incentive put up by [...]

To brighten up a dull Tuesday a big run is expected from David Pipe’s Painter Man in Leicester’s 0-110 Humberstone Handicap Hurdle at 4.10pm this afternoon. Injury prone in the past, this is a horse who’s only had 16 career starts despite being a 10-year-old, and he can defy top weight off a mark of [...]

I don’t suppose Prunella Dobbs and her team have sent Our Girl Salley across from Ireland from their Dunganstown, County Wicklow base for a breath of the Berkshire air, and she can defy a penalty to take the spoils in this afternoon’s Grade 2 1942 Was A Vintage Year Mares’ Hurdle at Ascot, 2.05pm live [...]

Greetings from Kempton Park, or at least a popular brand of budget hotel a few hundred yards from the track, one which could easily be mistaken for a prison or perhaps the well signed nearby Feltham Young Offenders Institute. On the upside it does sit within crawling distance of one of the finest Indian restaurants [...]

A belated Happy New Year to kick off the first column of 2012, and what a celebration it was to see off 2011. Four days in front of the RTE cameras at Leopardstown, during which Le Beau Bai put a smile as wide as the Severn Bridge on my face by winning the Welsh National, [...]

Following a hectic few days covering Leopardtown’s fantastic Christmas meeting for RTE in Ireland, Tom’s headed West for a well deserved break and to welcome in 2012 in the beautiful city of Galway. With it, he’s left the writing of this weekend’s column down to the “Bulldog editor” after finding out when he was at [...]

It’s not easy trying to type on an Apple Macbook while doing a one man conga in the pitch black up and down the Leopardstown home straight, but certain events call for a celebration, and Le Beau Bai’s win in Tuesday’s Coral Welsh National fits the bill nicely! Thanks to everyone who’s taken the time [...]

Boom, boom, boom! In a season already heaving with riches and not exactly short on fairytale endings, it just had to be the resurgent Kauto Star to go and trumps them all with a truly sensational display to see off Long Run and co in the King George VI Chase, making it a record breaking [...]

Christmas comes but once a year and mercifully so if you’re a trainer, stable lad, jockey’s agent or valet, with an eye-watering 12 Boxing Day* meetings in Britain and Ireland for them to service and us to enjoy on a day when many eyes will be trained on South West London, and in particular Kempton [...]

With a bit of luck both Ascot and Haydock can escape the worst of the wintery weather to make up a cracking six race double bill live on Channel 4 on Saturday afternoon. It’s an early start for yours truly in front of the Morning Line cameras, and it should be a show well worth [...]

As we get ever nearer to Christmas and the halfway point of the Premier League, Chelsea’s win over Manchester City last Monday breathed some life into the Championship race and it’s the Londoners who feature in Saturday’s live match. Wigan v Chelsea is the evening kick off and I still don’t really know what to [...]

What could be finer than unexpectedly plotting up in a Brewers Fayre pub near a saturated stretch of the M6 slap bang during the middle of rush hour on a Friday night? Fortunate not to be killed by a stray bread roll – launched by someone with particularly bad eye sight or possibly someone particularly [...]

After two afternoons spent shivering at Leicester and Ludlow it’s a move not necessarily up the temperature gauge, but most definitely up the National Hunt racing pyramid on Friday, with a trip to day one of Cheltenham’s International Meeting on the menu for their seven race fixture. It’s a mixture of a card, but I’ll [...]

First up we’ve got the live Sunday lunchtime kick-off between Sunderland and Blackburn at the Stadium of Light. I’m not sure Martin O’Neill can get a lot more out of Sunderland’s squad as it stands. He will make them harder to play against but they are undoubtedly going to need to buy a goalscorer. In [...]

December is upon us and with the likes of Kauto Star, Carruthers, Peddlers Cross and Overturn providing the type of headline delicacies National Hunt devotees lap up over the last two weekends you have to say this Saturday’s fayre will be going some to match the giddy heights reached in late November, but having had [...]

December is upon us and with the likes of Kauto Star, Carruthers, Peddlers Cross and Overturn providing the type of headline delicacies National Hunt devotees lap up over the last two weekends you have to say this Saturday’s fayre will be going some to match the giddy heights reached in late November, but having had [...]

The first live match from the Premier League this weekend is the Saturday lunchtime kick-off between Newcastle and Chelsea. I watched Chelsea against Liverpool the other day and they were absolutely shocking. There’s no width, no balance, no shape to the side, and no wonder Fernando Torres isn’t scoring and not playing very well. I [...]