- Monday, 13 December 2010 08:08
- Written by Chester Barnes
Some things in racing never seem to change...and so it was yesterday as Huntingdon abandoned their card at 10.30am. I am sure that most of the intended runners were already on the road by this point. Personally, if I was a trainer I would be inclined to send the course a bill for my raceday expenses. I know that having gone to the trouble of rescheduling the meeting from Friday they would want to give the course every chance of racing, but I am told that there was very little chance of the meeting ever getting the go-ahead, so why was there the need for three inspections?
- Sunday, 12 December 2010 00:00
- Written by Chester Barnes
Surely the Racing Post must have a better picture of Henry Cecil than the one they used in yesterday's paper. Apparently on St Patrick's Day Henry will be making his first visit to the Cheltenham Festival Meeting in March - I find that really difficult to believe. Maybe I will be able to persuade him to join us in our hospitality marquee? I stayed with Henry at Warren Place a few years ago along with MCP and AP and I still have the picture of the four of us holding gold cups from Henry's Group One collection hanging on my wall. He put me up in a room full of thousands of metal soldiers from The Charge of the Light Brigade (Battle of Balaclava, 1854) - I was kept awake all night by the noise they were making!
- Saturday, 11 December 2010 08:02
- Written by Chester Barnes
What a great card at Cheltenham this afternoon, it wouldn't look out of place at the Festival in March! The race I am most looking forward to is the 3.05pm which features a clash between Cue Card, Menorah and Silviniaco Conti - all three wouldn't look out of place in a Champion Hurdle and all have big reputations to uphold so something has to give here. Don't forget that it's an early start too, with the action getting underway at 11.40am. Allow plenty of time if you are going - the traffic is likely to be heavy as there hasn't been much racing and jumps fans will be getting withdrawal symptoms!
- Friday, 10 December 2010 08:03
- Written by Chester Barnes
It's good to have jump racing back this afternoon for the first time since last Sunday, and where better than our premier course Cheltenham? It looks as though we are in for a cracking couple of days of action, although they are inspecting the cross-country course this morning - let's just hope that both days go ahead without any problems. It was 6°c in Brixham this morning, although I understand that it hasn't been quite so warm at the Gloucester track. The thing that amazes me though, is that I saw a gritting lorry going around the roads near my home - they are nowhere to be seen when we have ice and snow! I guess the councils have God syndrome - they certainly work in mysterious ways!
- Thursday, 09 December 2010 08:03
- Written by Chester Barnes
Sadly Huntingdon had to abandon today's meeting yesterday, but the good news is that they have taken a leaf out of Exeter's book and are going to try to reschedule the meeting for this Sunday. Let's hope that it can go ahead - it would be a shame to lose the meeting, especially as they have the Grade 2 Peterborough Chase on the card. The race is worth £65,000 to the winner, and even the bumper on the card is worth £2,000 - that's better than some of the all-weather flat races!
- Wednesday, 08 December 2010 08:54
- Written by Chester Barnes
Just when I thought that the snow and ice had done it's worst to affect the racing calendar, yesterday Mother Nature threw freezing fog into the mix to call a halt to Southwell's all-weather meeting. Fortunately they managed to run the first three races which meant that one of my selections, Love Delta was able to score at the rewarding odds of 4/1. It was good to see the Mark Johnston runner bounding out of the fog to score by five lengths, although you could clearly see (or not!) that it was too dangerous to carry on racing.
- Tuesday, 07 December 2010 08:21
- Written by Chester Barnes
Well, England managed to win the second Test match against the Australians by an innings and 71 runs, and following his efforts with bat and ball I was amused to see Kevin Pietersen (tongue firmly in cheek) refer to himself as an all-rounder! Remember, England only need to draw the series to retain the Ashes, but wouldn't it be great to win the series outright? I have a few Aussie mates who have given me quite a lot of stick down the years, but funnily enough I haven't heard much from them recently. Fortunately Ricky Ponting is going through a torrid time with the bat, but even so, Australia look to be a poor outfit...so now we have got them down, let's tread on them!
