- Tuesday, 03 February 2026 08:02
- Written by G Edwards
There are two jumps meetings today at Carlisle and Taunton and unusually for us, we do not have any runners at our most local track. It is very rare for the ground at Taunton to be described as heavy, but that is what it is for today and it is not a surprise given recent weather conditions. A lot of Taunton was flooded last week, with parts still remaining under water and that is very unusual as Taunton usually sits in its own little bubble and seems to miss a lot of the worst weather. Taunton rugby club was flooded and I believe there is a crowd funding page to try to help it recover. The Injured Jockeys Fund hub is based at the rugby club and is a great facility for jockeys and people connected with racing in the South West. I am not sure how their facilities have been affected but certainly the entire downstairs of the building was under water at one stage. It is a lovely facility and I have done Christmas wreath making for the last couple of years as racing secretaries were invited to come along. Hopefully the facility will be back up and running fairly soon.
- Monday, 02 February 2026 07:59
- Written by G Edwards
Gold in the Rivers Winner at Market Rasen
It was fantastic to get a nice win at Market Rasen yesterday with Gold in the Rivers, his first win for the stable since arriving from Ireland. He made a good start to his chasing career earlier this season with two placed efforts at Lingfield but did not run very well last time out at Newbury. We added blinkers that day and we were not sure he 'faced them' despite practicing in them at home. He didn't jump very well and the writing was on the wall literally from the start that day. The return to hurdling and with cheek pieces yesterday, he looked a totally different horse and was happy from the outset. He travelled and jumped well and took up the running as they turned from home. He was always in control from that point but it is a very long run in at Market Rasen and it felt even longer yesterday with his rivals slowly closing but I think he was just idling in front a little. Jack Tudor gave him a lovely positive ride and I think this will have given the horse a lot of confidence and hopefully he can build on that going forwards. He has always worked better at home than he has shown on the racecourse to this point so I hope there is more to come now going forwards.
- Sunday, 01 February 2026 06:55
- Written by G Edwards
We hopefully have Day two (even though it is Day One really!) of the Dublin Racing Festival taking place today today and there is a fantastic day of racing to look forward to at Leopardstown, providing it passes it's 8am inspection. Harry Cobden goes over for four rides and the racing gets underway at 12.40pm. The first graded action comes up in the second race of the day for which Final Demand is the short priced favourite for the 2m5f novices chase and he looks like he will be difficult to beat. Majborough is favourite for the Dublin chase at 2.10pm while all the build up has been about whether Marine Nationale will run or not run! At 3.20pm we have the Irish Champion hurdle in which young Martha's favourite horse, Lossiemouth is favourite. I am also a fan but Brighterdaysahead was not far behind her last time out and it may not be all plain sailing for the favourite but I hope it is! It is an eight race card to look forward to if the weather does not get in the way.
- Saturday, 31 January 2026 07:53
- Written by G Edwards
There was a fantastic day of racing to look forward to today, weather permitting and while Sandown has got the green light to go ahead, Leopardstown has unfortunately been abandoned and we are still awaiting news on Wetherby which has an inspection. So there is definitely good jumps cards to look forward to at both Sandown and Musselburgh and there are two all-weather meetings at Lingfield and Newcastle and we have one runner at the former, Bashful Boy.
- Friday, 30 January 2026 08:04
- Written by G Edwards
The Gallops in Drier Times!
Ffos Las has passed it's 7.30am inspection, racing goes ahead and we have one runner, Turenne. I had my doubts whether racing would go ahead there today but they have had significantly less rainfall there than we have has in the last 24 hours. The track recorded 4.8mm and the ground is described as heavy, soft in places. We have had 16mm on rain in the last 24 hours which takes our total to 90mm for the last five days and there is more to come for us later today. Both our sand and woodchip gallops are holding up well however and it is business as usual on the yard this morning. If the forecast is correct then we should at least get the riding out done in the dry before the rain returns later which would be very welcomed by those riding out.
- Thursday, 29 January 2026 08:05
- Written by G Edwards
The good news is that jumps racing returns today with action at both Ayr and Wincanton so it was just the one blank day of jumps racing so far this week. The latter had an afternoon inspection yesterday but passed that and with no rain since then there are no problems there this morning, the going is heavy and it will be hard work conditions for horses and riders this afternoon. The stable does not have any runners today. There are two all-weather flat meetings at Lingfield and Chelmsford while in Ireland they have a jumps card at Thurles. We had just the 7mm of rain here at Pond House in the last 24 hours so a bit of relief from recent days and has allowed things to settle down a bit but there is another weather warning for later this afternoon so we have further rain to look forward to!
- Wednesday, 28 January 2026 07:50
- Written by G Edwards
It is a welcome drier start to the day here at Pond House and I was even scraping ice off my card windscreen! Just 4.5mm of rain in the past 24 hours but surrounding areas have been hit quite badly by flooding but we have been pretty lucky. It looks set to me dry for us today but rain returns tomorrow and by the look of it, quite a lot so we will have to prepare for the next deluge. It is a quiet day on the racing front today with no jumps racing with Exeter called off on Monday and Leicester failing an inspection yesterday morning. We are left with just one all-weather fixture today at Kempton and one in Ireland at Dundalk. No runners for us today or tomorrow but hopefully we may be back in action on Friday.
