- Friday, 09 August 2013 07:09
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
Day five of the jumps racing sabatical so there is light at the end of the tunnel! For our amusement today we have five flat meetings from Musselburgh, Brighton, Lingfield, Newmarket and Haydock. I'm not quite sure why there are afternoon meetings at Lingfield and Brighton - they are not far apart and will certainly be taking custom from one another...another victory for race planning. Furthermore, the prize money over here is disappointing once again - Lingfield offer £25,000 across seven races, while Tipperary has £128,000 up for grabs - racecourses beware, it's not that long a way to Tipperary!
- Thursday, 08 August 2013 07:10
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
Day 4 of our jump racing sabatical and we have six meetings on the level to bring you this afternoon from Haydock, Brighton, Yarmouth, Sandown, Southwell and Chepstow. Unsurprisingly, despite the amount of action on offer on these shores the most prize money on offer today comes from the two Irish meetings at Leopardstown and Sligo - the meeting at Sligo is a jumps card and even that has more money on offer than any of our flat fixtures! Two of the races at Chepstow are worth less than £2,000 and by the time you take expenses into account there wouldn't be much left over for the poor owner...mind you someone has to keep these poor racecourses going.
- Wednesday, 07 August 2013 07:00
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
It's day three of our jumps break so we have flat cards at Brighton, Pontefract, Newcastle, Kempton and Yarmouth to keep us amused. As David mentioned in his blog last week - what is the point in this disjointed summer calendar? Why not have a distinct break between the start and finish of the jumps season rather than a week off in August and another week off in September? It is all very start-stop, but just to add a bit of spice to the mix there has been an additional jumps fixture at Stratford added right in the middle of the September break on 17th September! I would really love to ask the race planning people how and why they come up with some of the fixtures they do...this one is just the latest in a long line of head scratchers. Jockey Aidan Coleman was considering taking a break but has had to cancel any such plans - why don't the BHA pay more attention to what the jockeys have to say?
- Tuesday, 06 August 2013 07:21
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
Day two of our jumping sabatical and we have four flat meetings to look forward to this afternoon with action from Ffos Las, Catterick, Ripon and Kempton. For a jumping fix it is over to Ireland for their meeting at Roscommon. It's hard to believe it, but A P McCoy is having the day off - just be careful if you are playing golf anywhere in the Lambourn area, he does tend to spray them all over the place! I'm only joking of course, in fact the champ has a very good reason for a day off today following the birth of his son - sincerest congratulations to him and Chanelle.
- Monday, 05 August 2013 07:18
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
Well, the week long jumps sabatical starts today so if you like your National Hunt racing you might as well take a week's holiday! Nevertheless, the work around the yard continues as normal (as you can see from the above picture on the gallops) so that the horses are ready to go upon resumption. There are four flat meetings to keep us occupied today at Ripon, Wolverhampton, Carlisle and Windsor...the meeting at Carlisle is an all lady jockey's card. Quite a few of the ladies are from the jumping game, including Rachael Green and Lucy Alexander, while top flat jockey's Kirsty Milczarek and Cathy Gannon have a decent book of rides. I would have thought that four of those ladies will have a few winners between them...you heard it here first!
- Sunday, 04 August 2013 00:00
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
There are three meetings taking place this afternoon and if you like your jump racing, you had best get your fix at Market Rasen for after that there is a week without any National Hunt action at all...I don't know what I am going to do! There are two meetings on the level at Chester and Newbury and the prize money at the former is very good. Don't forget if you are planning on having a wager at Chester today in the sprint races, you need the advantage of a low draw due to the tight nature of the course. If you are anywhere near Chester it is well worth a visit and is an excellent track for viewing. I would think that as usual there will be plenty of footballers in the middle of the track at the champagne bar. They can normally be seen there with their orange tans, holding a bottle of the most expensive bubbly they can get their hands on.
- Saturday, 03 August 2013 07:21
- Written by Chelsea Morgan
There is a busy day of racing ahead with no fewer than seven meetings taking place with six on the flat at Goodwood, Newmarket, Thirsk, Doncaster, Hamilton and Lingfield as well as a jumps card at our local track Newton Abbot. There has been quite a bit of rain overnight in the west country so the ground could certainly have eased a little bit. The stable has three runners - Shoegazer, Qulinton and Ladyvie. Qulinton (above, centre, blue colours) has fallen to a handy hurdles mark of 122 (he has won from 135 over fences) and he ran creditably last time out over course and distance.
