Storm Past

     Paricolor runs at Newmarket Today

I do hope Storm Ciaran has passed you all by and everyone is safe and well with not too much damage.  Some of the places I see on the news in Jersey and along the South Coast look terrible and it must have been very frightening.  We had a fair bit of rain over Wednesday evening and throughout yesterday morning and even though it was windy it really wasn't too bad.  Our morning routine continued pretty much as normal but well done to our team of staff on doing a great job in not the nicest conditions.  I was okay in the office but did have a leaking sky light so the elements did affect me a little!

Today we have one run, Paricolor on the flat at Newmarket.  He runs un the 2.35pm handicap over two miles with Cieren Fallon on board.  This is the first time we have ever run our seven year old on the flat but he was a winner and placed from five starts in France before we had him.  He is the winner of ten races in his career and has been a terrific horse for Pond House and he is still only seven!  David has had this long term plan of running him on the flat this season before he heads to Cheltenham to run in the conditional handicap hurdle in a couple weeks time, a race he has run very well in the past.  While last season he was not at his best he has had wind surgery during the summer and I think we may see a different horse this time around.  He is the outsider of the field today at 25/1 and so it will be tough but he won't mind the heavy ground conditions and hopefully this race can blow away any cob webs.  We would have liked to have run him at Newbury last week but that was abandoned and this was the only suitable race on turf coming up for him. Hopefully he can get some prize money today, he will enjoy it and it will put him spot on for Cheltenham.

Paricolor runs in new ownership today - a partnership called 'Hour of Glory'.  If you would like to be involved in owning a share in him and be an owner at Cheltenham in a couple of weeks time, please do get in touch with the office for more information - email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .  It is hopefully more affordable thank you think with plenty of action coming up and hopefully some prize money in your pocket as well!

I see that unfortunately the only scheduled jumps racing due to take place today, Wetherby, has been abandoned.  This was going to be the the first day of their two day Charlie Hall meeting so they will be hoping conditions improve enough so that racing can go ahead tomorrow.  That leaves just two flat meetings in Britain today and Newmarket and Newcastle while they also race on the all-weather in Ireland at Dundalk.  Down Royal's big meeting was already called off earlier in the week and postponed to next week which is a great bit of planning.

Don't forget this evening we also have the first day of the Breeders Cup action from Santa Anita in America.  While I am not a huge fan of flat racing I do enjoy this meeting and there are plenty of British, Irish and European horses and jockeys in action.  I was lucky enough to go to the Breeders Cup ten years ago and I would love to go back again one day and shall be tuning into watch this evening. I think it is being shown on both ITV and Sky Sports Racing.

Me: Boss, I'm sorry I'm late.  I was having computer problems.

Boss: Hard drive?

Me: No, the commute was fine.  It's my laptop!

Happy Friday!