Caviar Success!

What an amazing weekend for the yard with an across the card double at Cheltenham and Hereford on Saturday. Warthog (pictured above) was a brave winner of the feature Caspian Caviar Gold Cup at Cheltenham under an inspired ride from David Noonan, whilst Buster Edwards was a ready winner of the staying handicap hurdle at Hereford under Nick Scholfield. With Eamon An Cnoic finishing second, Stream Lady third (in the valuable mares' final at Hereford) and Queens Cave fifth, all five of our runners over the weekend picked up prize money. The double moved us onto 45 winners for the season, already surpassing last season's total...and it is not even Christmas yet!

Warthog produced a personal best performance to rally on the run-in having been headed at the last to snatch an unlikely victory from the jaws of defeat. This success was made all the sweeter as it was part-owner Professor Caroline Tisdall's birthday...what a marvellous present for her.

David's horses have been in fantastic form all season long and this was a welcome big 'Saturday' winner for the yard. David remains firmly entrenched in the top tier of the trainers' table, more than matching most of his contemporaries despite less firepower than many and it continues to baffle me why more owners don't send horses in his direction.

There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Plumpton and Ffos Las as well as an all-weather flat card from Wolverhampton. The stable was due to have a rare runner on the all-weather today but Ghost Serge does not participate in the amateur riders' handicap at 4.05pm.

Following yet more rain, racing at Lingfield is unsurprisingly abandoned ahead of their intended fixture tomorrow.

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There was no great surprise as Ben Stokes was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year last night. Stokes almost single-handedly won England the T20 world cup earlier in the year and has been a massive odds-on favourite for this award ever since. England's cricketers were also named team of the year.

*****

Who hides in the bakery at Christmas? A mince spy!

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