With the football season coming to a close, we have asked our tipsters what their plans are.  Some will stay active, betting on Scandinavian or South American football, some will take a short break before coming back to take on the friendly campaigns that go on across Europe.  Some will stay out of the friendlies [...]

Doncaster fly’s the flag for flat turf racing aficionados this weekend in what has been an interrupted start to the campaign on the level.

One of the greatest sights in the sporting calendar is forty steeplechasers thundering towards the first fence of the Grand National. A contest watched the world over and laden with history as both horse and rider attempt to navigate thirty fences to take their place in racing folklore. This month I try to find the winner of “the people’s race.”

The new Flat turf campaign was never likely to kick-off on any other going than soft. Testing ground conditions ruined last year’s season for many racing aficionados and already there are grave concerns for Saturday’s curtain-raising Lincoln meeting going ahead with snow forecast for Doncaster. Fingers crossed racing does go ahead with the Lincoln previewed below and a horse to follow at Newbury.

As I pen this column the dust has yet to settle on the Cotswolds and a marvellously entertaining Cheltenham festival. The weekend racing drops a few gears although there’s the Midlands Grand National at Uttoxeter and on the sand at Lingfield, the prestigious Winter Derby.