Barton Southwell Bound

It was a good weekend for the stable with the yard in the winners' enclosure on Saturday at Ffos Las courtesy of Poole Master who won the handicap chase in convincing fashion.  Let's just hope that the handicappper doesn't overreact to this success as a mark of 128 looks about right to me.  Obistar ran a promising first race when runner-up in the bumper on the same card - he should come on a bundle for the experience and he looks sure to be winning races.  Meanwhile Junior ran creditably to finish fourth in the West Wales National.

We made the long journey up to Musselburgh yesterday with the talented His Excellency.  He ran a very good race to finish a close runner-up in the Scottish Champion Chase and picked up some decent prize money.  He didn't jump as well as he has done in the past and the result may well have been different with a clear round.  Even so, this was a step back in the right direction so hopefully he can go on from here.

There are three meetings taking part this afternoon - one over the sticks at Southwell and two all-weather flat meetings at Wolverhampton and Kempton.  The stable has one runner at Southwell, Barton Stacey (pictured above) who will be partnered by Tom Scudamore in the 3 mile handicap hurdle.  He wasn't beaten at all far last time out and with the blinds on today a big run is expected.

*****

As I am sure you all know by now, we like to study the form at Pond House to give ourselves the best chance of success on the track, but we also like to study the form when it comes to the weather!  We have been measuring the daily rainfall at the yard ever since the beginning of the millenium and last month was the wettest January we have had to date with no less than 181mm (or just over 7 inches) falling.  Looking back through our records we try to predict using historical figures what the weather will do in February and more importantly, March.  It will certainly be interesting to see what the elements have in store for us - in 2001 wet months in January and February preceded a wet March, but last year following plenty of rain and snow in January we had a dry February followed by a reasonable March.  It seems that one way or another though, nature has a way of balancing things out with the cumulative rainfall at the year's end always around the 3 feet mark.

Cummulative rainfall: 2001 - 985mm, 2002 - 1138mm, 2003 - 672mm, 2004 - 896mm, 2005 - 875mm, 2006 - 877mm, 2007 - 1010mm, 2008 - 804mm, 2009 - 1013mm, 2010 - 804mm, 2011 - 703mm, 2012 - 1320mm, 2013 - 975mm.

*****

There was another embarrassing defeat for England's cricketers down under and they managed to lose their tour matches 12-1!  It's not only Andy Flowers that needs to be shown the door, but everyone involved.  However, as usual I am sure that everyone will keep their jobs.

*****

What a result for Great Britain's tennis players as they beat the USA in America for the first time since 1903 to proress to the quarter-finals.  The last time we won the Davis Cup was in 1935 and Fred Perry was in that team...Fred was also world table tennis champion - what an amazing man!  Can you name any other British tennis players other than Andy Murray?  I must confess, I was struggling.

*****

Chinese snooker player Ding Junhui beat Judd Trump in the final of the German Masters and became the first player to win four ranking events in a season for 23 years.  The last person to do this was Stephen Hendry.

*****

It was the Superbowl over in America last night and I know that there are a few followers of the NFL in the yard.  The highly anticipated match-up between the league's best offence (Denver Broncos) and best defence (Seattle Seahawks) never really materialised as Seattle dominated in all areas to land their first trophy by the score of 43-8.  I'm sure our travelling head lad and Seahawks fan Bob Hodge will be well pleased.

*****

There is an excellent football match to look forward to tonight as Manchester City take on Chelsea at 8pm on Sky.  Manchester City look worth a bet to me at odds of 9/10...remember, my lucky pin is red hot at the moment so get into Ladbrokes early!