What A Tease!

David broke the news in his column yesterday that conditional jockey Kieron Edgar (pictured above winning at Cheltenham aboard Home Run) has been cleared to ride again by Dr Turner following a nasty fall at Newbury on 1st March which left him with his femur fractured in three places.  Talk about a tease, I'm sure the young Scottish jockey is deseperate to get back into the saddle but he was cleared on the first day of the summer break, meaning that his first opportunity to race ride will not be until a week on Wednesday at the very earliest...how tantalising is that?!  Anyway, it will be good to have him back in the saddle, Kieron is good value for his 5lbs claim so let's hope that he is able to carry on where he left off and he picks up a few outside rides.  Last season was his best yet with 12 winners until the campaign was brought to it's premature end.

It was quite a surprise to read in this morning's Racing Post that Jim Crowley has resigned from his job as stable jockey to former Pipe Academy graduate Ralph Beckett with immediate effect.  The two have formed a very successful partnership during their five years together and it is something of a shock to learn of the jockeys' decision to go freelance when he has the pick of a decent bunch of horses.  I was equally surprised to learn that Crowley hadn't ridden a Group One winner for Ralph during his tenure, especially when you consider the stable has enjoyed two Oaks successes as well as a winner at the Breeders Cup meeting.  Ralph was at Pond House between 1994 and 1995 and he used to get annoyed with me when I would pronounce his name incorrectly (should be pronounced Raith) - a good trainer who I am sure will have little trouble filling the vacancy.

I was fascinated to see that Catterick have chosen to abandon their seller at their forthcoming meeting due to lack of interest.  The race, worth £3,500 was abandoned after it attracted only four entries - they had the option to re-offer the race to see if it would attract more entries, but instead took what I believe to be the sensible decision to call it off and host a six race card.  I can understand why there is difficulty in attracting horses into the novices' chases where they might inadvertently come across a good'un, but this is low grade stuff designed to give low grade horses an opportunity.  In my (biased!) opinion there should be more sellers - we have enjoyed considerable success with horses obtained from sellers and claimers down the years, not least Champion Hurdle winner Make A Stand (who we claimed at Leicester) and dual Cheltenham Festival winner Blowing Wind.

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Yesterday marked the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I and what a poignant affair it was too as we commemorated everyone who gave their lives for our freedom.  I thought that the suggestion of putting the lights out for an hour between 10pm and 11pm was a very good idea and would have given everyone a great insight into what times were like during the blackouts.  The trouble is that it was one of the most badly organised national events I have ever seen - nobody seemed to know anything about it...a shame really as I can't see it being suggested again in another one hundred years.

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