Ascot Bumper

There are two jumps meetings today, Ascot and Uttoxeter and thankfully both have been the go ahead after torrential rain across the country.  There are also two flat meetings at Southwell and Wolverhampton and also one at Dundalk this evening.  David has one runner at Ascot, Israel Champ in the Listed bumper at 3.40pm.  As you would expect it looks a very competitive affair with some very nice young horses in the field.  Israel Champ was a good winner at Cheltenham last time under Tom Scu, leading all the way round and then fending off the challengers late on.  He has to carry a four pound penalty for that success against some tougher opposition but we hold him in high regard and hopefully he won't be too far away this afternoon.

Rain battered the Southwest yesterday from lunchtime onwards and Exeter unfortunately had to be abandoned after only three races after an on course inspection.  This meant that our three intended runners didn't get to race as we were in the later races!  Ghost Serge, Great Tempo and Little Red Lion all had a nice little afternoon out but did not get to run!  Thankfully for us we did not have far to travel but it is a shame for connections they did not get to see their horses and ours would have actually liked conditions but the health and safety of jockeys and horses must come first.

We did in fact measure 30mm of rain at Pond House from yesterday lunchtime until this morning with high winds to accompany it as well.  Thankfully despite a lot of water running off the nearby beacon and turning roads to rivers at the yard and gallops itself have coped with the water very well.  It has been very wet now for three months but we have a good team of staff keeping the drains and gutters unblocked and these have done a good job coping with all that we have had.  In fact we have nearly had 120mm raiin since the start of December.  Add that to 156mm in November 145mm in October and 99mm in September you can see why everywhere is so saturated and it feels like it has not stopped raining for months!!

Boxing Day entries close this morning with seven meetings on around the country.  David will be studying the entry book on the way to Ascot, have a good day everyone, stay dry!