There are five meetings scheduled to take place this afternoon although the prospects of the jump meetings at Warwick and Uttoxeter hinge on early morning inspections.  Newbury goes ahead without any problems, while there are also all-weather flat fixtures from Lingfield and Wolverhampton.  The stable has five runners at Newbury this afternoon; Shotavodka, Bygones Sovereign, Balgarry, Swing Bowler and Kings Palace (pictured above).  Balgarry and Swing Bowler contest Europe's richest handicap hurdle The Betfair Hurdle, while Kings Palace is set to complete his Cheltenham preparation in the novices' chase.  He has jumped with aplomb over the larger obstacles in two starts at Cheltenham and a clear round should suffice this afternoon.  He is also entered at Exeter tomorrow although that is very much a second preference.

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The stable enjoyed another nice winner yesterday when Skylander outbattled Sternrubin in the novices' hurdle at Taunton under conditional jockey Michael Heard. Michael has been in tremendous form of late and the horses really seem to be running for him. He is good value for his 7lbs claim and it would be a shame if he did not start to pick up more outside rides on the back of his good form. With the third home rated 121 this looked like a decent contest for the track and a good effort from our progressive winner.

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There are four meetings taking place this afternoon and the good news is that both Taunton and Huntingdon have passed early morning inspections so we have some jump racing to look forward to once again.  It cetainly was nothing like as cold around here overnight.  There are also all-weather flat meetings taking place at Wolverhampton and Chelmsford City.  The stable has ten runners this afternoon at Taunton including promising types such as Skylander (pictured above), Sir Frank Morgan and Rathealy.  Sir Frank Morgan makes his debut for the stable this afternoon and has his first try over hurdles having shown a decent level of form over staying trips on flat.  Meanwhile, Miss Williams (a daughter of Wee Dinns who was also trained at Pond House) makes her racecourse debut this afternoon and will be partnered by Nick Scholfield.

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Following another bout of freezing temperatures overnight there are just two all-weather flat meetings surviving this afternoon from Chelmsford City and Kempton.  Consequently the stable has no runners and there are inspections today ahead of tomorrow's jump meetings at Doncasater and Huntingdon.  There is light at the end of the tunnel however as there is no inspection planned at our local track Taunton - it must be something to do with their own little micro-climate or being in the Gulf Stream or such like!

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With the loss of Market Rasen and Sedgefield to the weather we are left with just a couple of flat cards from Southwell and Kempton.  As regular readers will know, it is not very often that I say thank goodness for the all-weather, but at least it saves us from a blank day this afternoon.  Today is the first time this winter that I have had a frost on my car and judging by the weather forecast we could be in for a few more abandonments in they days to come.  Fortunately there are no anticipated problems at Newbury ahead of their meeting on Saturday as they have had covers on the course since last Thursday.

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I thought that the horses ran well on Saturday and Heath Hunter clearly appreciated the extremely testing ground at Ffos Las.  He had been competing in top class handicaps so this race represented a drop in class, but even so it was a good effort for him to win this handicap under 11-11.  He stays further than the two mile trip and that clearly played into his hands.  The West Wales National developed into something of a war of attrition and like Tom Scudamore said to me beforehand, whoever finishes will win.  He was proven quite correct as Bob Ford was the only real finisher, although Gorgehous Lliege was eventually second having initially looked like he was pulled up.  He eventually clambered over the last fence to complete for the not insignificant prize of £8,000.

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             MCP & Brough Scott

Today we have just two meetings, jumping at Musselburgh and a flat card at Chelmsford.  Jockey Conor O'Farrell has gone all the way to Musselburgh to ride Streets of New York for trainer Brian Ellison.  Conor did ride this one to finish a close second last time out but it is his only ride on the card and it is a long way to go so hopefully it will run well.  There looks to be good prize money at both meetings.  Brough Scott visited Pond House for the first time in 25 years during the week and there is a good article in today's Racing Post so make sure you guy and buy it!  It is worth paying the £2.40 for this article alone!  Why is the Racing Post more expensive on a Sunday?  It is normally the least number of pages, maybe they are printing on double time?!

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