Should have laid the double

Betting shops may be allowed to open on April 14. The Grand National is April 12.

Foreign holidays may be allowed from May 19. My trip to Greece is booked for May 17.

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Plenty in the Tank

 I think I may have written before about the dangers of betting on 'bumpers for jumpers.' You can never be quite sure who is trying to win and who is using the 'race' as an opportunity for a free racecourse gallop. Today's 1.55 at Newcastle provided a case in point. Plenty in the Tank was sent off the 9/2 2nd favourite. The horse is trained by Olly Murphy and owned by Oliver Jack Murphy (who I am assuming is a relation). In October 2019, when trained by Ed de Giles, it won a bumper at Chepstow quite easily. It was then bought for £75k by the current owner. The horse had wind surgery and ran poorly in 2 hurdle races for Olly Murphy. In today's race it looked to my eye that Plenty in the Tank was on a schooling run. He started near the back, ran round fine and finished 7th of 12 with (well) plenty in the tank. Plenty in the Tank has gone into my tracker. I'd suggest the new owner will want to recoup some of that £75k before too long.
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There was a small bit of roguery

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Weekend reflections

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