Back on the road

Thank goodness, the good Lord permitting, we will be racing again tomorrow; the last six weeks have unquestionably been a real slog and I have to confess that on the odd occasion my resolve has wavered, apart from all the work a lot of money from many loyal supporters has gone in so far this season and, frankly, bugger all has come back. It was a real blow that the weather closed in just when we were about to step up a gear but at the end of the day we have to deal with the elements and produce some results. I have a great bunch of horses here at the moment, better than ever, and have at least 15 that I am hoping to run in the next 8 weeks so I'm going to set some targets (publicly) and state that I will be deeply unhappy if we don't have at least 50 runners before the end of April and of those runners (in points and under rules) I expect a minimum of 20% to be in the first two and 40% in the first four, that is no more than we have achieved in the past and I see it as a minimum achievement to prove that we are up to the job and that I'm not just going a bit gaga; tomorrow's runners will be interesting because of their unusual recent training regime so I won't throw all my toys out of the pram straight away if they run poorly...

The show gets on the road with the resumption of racing in the North at Newcastle, we have three runners none of whom have done any fast work for five weeks but all of whom have cantered six days a week throughout the freeze. Skipping Chapel gets the ball rolling in the 1.10pm, Fearghal Davies rides, 7 run and the ground will be like glue. He is in very good form and despite him not being an obvious choice on recent form I would like to think he will run very well. Seeking Power (pictured above with Holly) runs back over hurdles in the 1.40 with Lucy on board, this is not an ideal race for him but he is such a huge beast I really need to run him to stop him losing fitness, 12 run and I will be delighted if he is in the first six. Contendo (below with icicles!)runs in the 3.25, 12 run, Andrew Thornton takes the ride and if he can pull his feet out of the glue quickly enough I hope he can run very well; it is effectively only his second run over fences but he has plenty of jumping experience from point-to-points and this really is the sort of race he has been waiting for all his life....