It is one of those thankless tasks that is never going to leave everybody completely satisfied so you have to feel a little sorry for the race planning committee. Even so, with eight jumps fixtures scheduled for this week, it is a bit of a mystery as to why there is no action over the sticks until Wednesday. Consequently it is a quiet start to the week as far as Pond House runners goes, although we do have plenty of entries for the remainder of the week.

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I was pleased to see Newton Abbot survive an early morning inspection following a soggy weekend and it means that with four runners at the Devon track today (Monday), and another at Stratford it is a busy start to the week. Indeed, with a number of further entries later in the week, following a quiet spell on the racing front it is good to see things beginning to pick up.

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There is certainly a mixed bag of weather about at the moment! While the sun has been shining in the south west over the past few days (and is set fair again for the majority of this week) there have been deluges in the north of England and Scotland culminating in the abandonment of Ayr’s feature three day Gold Cup meeting last week as well as Hamilton’s card today. With a similar scenario echoed around other parts of the country too (Huntingdon’s Arab card was lost to the elements on Saturday) we are certainly going to have to keep a close eye on the prevailing ground at the forthcoming meetings.

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Without wishing to sound too clichéd, a week is a long time in racing so a year can seem more like an eternity! That is why I was more than a little surprised to look through the calendar this week and realise that it is approaching the first anniversary of our partnership with forward thinking recycling specialists National W&S Recycling Services as our yard sponsors. I would like to take this opportunity to thank proprietor Geoff Thompson and his team for their continued support and look forward to continuing our association for the coming season and beyond.

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With just three runners last week it was a quiet one, and while we didn’t hit the bullseye all three picked up prize money and continue to demonstrate that the horses are in good order. I would be lying if I said that the run of placings was anything other than frustrating, although it would be more of a concern if the horses were not competitive. With no jumping this coming weekend it is looking likely to be another quiet week with runners at just Newton Abbot this afternoon (Monday) and at Worcester tomorrow.

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With just a handful of runners on the week, it was a quiet one on the racing front, but with both Keating and Buster Edwards (pictured above) acquitting themselves well, we were arguably a little unlucky not to come away with a winner. Nevertheless these encouraging efforts confirm the wellbeing of the horses and I am sure that it is a matter of when rather than if they are successful.

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I have just returned from a few days away with the family in Portugal.  It was nice to get away before the kids go back to school and things start cranking up with the horses at home.  It was a lovely week and great we have come back to equally good weather over here!  It has been fairly quiet on the runner’s front with not that much racing to aim at but Lady of Longstone ran better at Newton Abbot to finish fourth at a big price.  The handicapper has finally given her a bit of a chance and hopefully she will be able to add to her 6 career wins so far in the near future.  Gabrial the Great ran another good race to finish a close fourth at Worcester last Wednesday.  He was put up for finishing second last time and off top weight it was a solid effort to only be beaten 2 ¾ lengths.  Read more...

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