- Thursday, 24 December 2015 08:22
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
There is just one day to go until Christmas...I guess it is time I did a bit of shopping! For those who work in the racing yards life goes on exactly the same. The horses still need to be fed and watered and of course exercised - especially if they are going to be running on Boxing Day. You can tell it is Christmas by the sudden surge of silly hats on display - as you can see from the photograph, none more so than when Roger Stanley and Paul Reynolds visited us earlier in the week!
- Wednesday, 23 December 2015 08:24
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
There is no racing now until Boxing Day but what a day we are in for with eight meetings to look forward to, better still - seven of them will be over jumps and the feature is obviously the King George meeting at Kempton. The big race will be at 3.10pm and it promises to be a classic renewal even with the defection of Coneygree. David has Ballynagour entered and while the bookies make him a 66/1 chance he has form which ties him closely with some of the leading protagonists - without his latest start he would be nothing like those odds.
- Tuesday, 22 December 2015 08:15
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
With the abandonment of Bangor yesterday due to waterlogging we are left with just two meetings taking place this afternoon both on the all-weather with the action coming from Southwell and Wolverhampton. Stable jockey Tom Scudamore was on the board with a winner yesterday aboard Dormouse - the time of the race was 4m36secs which gives you some idea of how heavy the ground was. Having said that, the 2m7 1/2f beginners' chase took 7m4secs...one of my marriages didn't last that long!
- Monday, 21 December 2015 08:32
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
Today there are three meetings taking place with jumps action from Lingfield supported by two all-weather cards from Chelmsford City and Wolverhampton. The stable's horses ran okay at the weekend without getting their heads in front. The best of them was What A Moment at Fakenham yesterday as he came within a neck of winning the maiden hurdle. Unfortunately he made a mistake at the last which I think was the difference between winning and losing but jumping is the name of the game. Even so, I don't think it will be very long before he is winning again. Watching the action from the weekend, the most impressive winner was Thistlecrack as he routed the Long Walk field at Ascot on Saturday - it would seem that Tom Scudamore is a better judge than I thought! It looks as though it is going to take a very good stayer to beat him come the Festival in March.
- Sunday, 20 December 2015 00:00
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
There are just two meetings taking place this afternoon - a jumps card at Fakenham and an all-weather flat card at Lingfield. David has two runners this afternoon; Houston Dynimo who contests the 2m7 1/2f handicap hurdle and What A Moment who contests the maiden hurdle at 3.20pm. Houston Dynimo is an evergreen veteran, our ten year old winning two of his last three starts and he is partnered by David Noonan who takes a useful 5lbs off his back on this return to the smaller obstacles. What A Moment was a Towcester bumper winner last term and finished fourth on his seasonal debut at Sandown a couple of weeks ago - Tom Scudamore takes the ride aboard him and both of our runners look to have sound claims today.
- Saturday, 19 December 2015 08:10
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
Today there will hopefully be four meetings taking place with jumps action from Ascot, Haydock and Newcastle (who have to pass an 8am inspection) supported by an all-weather flat card from Lingfield. David has four runners at Ascot this afternoon in the three feature races; La Vaticane goes in the 2m3f handicap chase at 1.50pm while Dynaste contests the Long Walk Hurdle at 2.25pm and Unanimite and Bidourey contest the fiercely competitive Ladbroke Hurdle at 3.35pm. As far as I am concerned the big race is the Long Walk - my mind goes back to Deano's Beeno and Lough Derg, a couple of great stayers to have won the race for the stable in the past. Tom Scu has been released to ride Thistlecrack for Colin Tizzard and Tom won aboard the seven year old three weeks ago - he clearly thinks that he will finish in front of Dynaste but we all know what lousy judges some of these jockeys can be!
- Friday, 18 December 2015 08:34
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
In case you missed it yesterday, the hot news off the press is that Tom Scudamore has had his five day ban that he was given for his ride in the Becher Chase at Aintree aboard Soll overturned on appeal. The incident occurred just before the famous elbow on the run-in as Tom held his line and stopped one of his rivals from going for an optimistic run up his inner. Tom is there to do his best for his owner and trainer and not to say 'after you old boy' to his rivals - his actions were no different to a racing driver holding his line and had he let one through he would have incurred the wrath of pundits and punters alike. I am pleased to see a rare victory for common sense. I wonder if there will be any action against the instigator?
