Racing is On!

It is great news to hear that we have racing at Southwell and Kempton today after a total wipe out yesterday.  It is a strange card at Kempton with all seven flat races for National Hunt horses.  My only concern is that all the runners can actually make it to the track! Pond House has 8-10 inches of snow but thankfully yesterdays hard work of digging some tracks meant that our lorry was able to get out this morning and is safely well on the way to Kempton.  There is a 10 year old running on the all-weather this afternoon and I am sure it will be an experience for some of the older horses,it will definitely sharpen them up at least!  I imagine that several trainers will not have been able to do that much fast work with their horses at home recently because of the bad weather and it will certainly be interesting watching this afternoon.  I would just like to say a big well done to Kempton and the BHA and whoever else was involved in getting this fixture arranged last minute.  With the weather causing such havoc it is great to have some racing taking place.  Fingers crossed the weather improves as it would be great to see some proper jumping action on Boxing Day.  

I see that a punter had an even £2,000 on AP to win the Sports Personality of the Year on Sunday.  I expect they had a massive phone bill anyway!  I just wonder how many phone calls this person did make?!  It does not matter however as it was just fantastic result and there is a lovely picture on the front of the Racing Post today of the Champ with his daughter Evie and the trophy he won.

Racing Welfare is a fantastic organisation that supports people who work in/have worked in racing with all their needs.  We heard that Geoff from the Organisation and flat jockey Kirsty Milczarek popped into the Newmarket racing retirement home (Jim Joel Court) last week. Kirsty chatted with Phyllis Page, wife of the late jockey Dougie, Fred Messer who we believe still does a little work at Ian Williams' yard, Fred Jeffcoate and Frankie O'Neil.  They all loved meeting Kirsty and telling their story.  So many people aren't aware of all the good work that the Racing Welfare do so it is great to give them a mention on here and to let everybody know that if you ever do need any help with anything there is help out there.  The Kirsty interview can be viewed at www.weighedin.tv

One final point on football.  It just goes to show you that it does not matter how much money you spend on your football team, money does not make them win!  Manchester City got beaten by Everton last night.  It takes time to build a team into one of the greatest, you just ask Sir Alex.  You can have all the best players or the most expensive players but that does not necessarily make a great team.