New Years Day!

 Pachacuti is one of our two runners today!

May I start by wishing you all a very happy New Year!! I hope you had a good New Years Eve however you welcomed in the New Year. We have an action packed start to 2024 on the racing front with four jump meetings around the country. There were due to be five but Southwell, like Sunday’s meetings at Warwick and Uttoxeter were all abandoned due to waterlogging. There is jump racing today at Cheltenham, Exeter, Catterick and Musselburgh. There is an all-weather flat card at Newcastle and in Ireland they race at Fairyhouse and Tramore over jumps.

Today, we have two runners at Exeter where the going will be testing. Chauffeur Driven and Pachacuti are our two representatives and both will be ridden by Jack Tudor. Chauffeur Driven, runs in the novices hurdle at 1:35pm over 2 miles. He ran well to be third at Ffos Las on hurdling debut, but found the track a little on the sharp side at Taunton last time. This track will suit better and although he will appreciate further in time it is going to be testing and you will need stamina for this today. He is about 13/2 in the betting and hopefully our Irish point to point winner can be in the shake up.

Pachacuti runs in the 3m Novices Handicap chase at 2:45pm. He made a pleasing chasing debut on seasonal reappearance at Warwick but ran terribly at Market Rasen last time. An early jumping error that day seemed to affect his confidence and he was beaten from an early stage. We know he is better than that and he has done a lot of school in practice since and he wears first time cheek pieces this afternoon to help him concentrate. The handicapper is giving him some help, He should handle the ground and is a good each way price at 10/1.

Reflecting on Saturday’s runners, nothing much went right!! Rebel Angel did not run as well as expected and she is better than that. Nila got no further than the first hurdle on her first run for a long time. It was a double blow as unfortunately, Gearoid Harney Picked up an injury and will now be on the side-lines for a while. He was stood down from his remaining rides on Saturday and a trip to hospital revealed a broken collarbone. Jockeys seem to bounce back from this injury quite quickly so fingers crossed it will not keep him out of action for too long.

Sean Houlihan deputised on Moodofthemoment and his chasing debut looked to be going well until he stopped very quickly after 4 out. Alice Stevens rode Dindin who was never really able to get into a rhythm from early on or into the race at any point. She felt he hated the sticky tacky ground. Bonheur De Ballon was again disappointing for no obvious reason while at Newbury had heavy rain which effectively ended any chances for Neon Moon.

You have to keep looking forward in this game, so fingers crossed for a good start to 2024!

Hopefully Manchester United will keep looking forward to as they lost to Nottingham Forest on Saturday. Arsenal are also not in great form and lost to Fulham yesterday. Ashley Farrant is happy as Spurs won against Brighton. Liverpool and Aston Villa start 2024 as joint top of the table in the premiership. there is just one Premier League match this evening, Liverpool play Newcastle at 8 pm.

Yesterday I was washing the car with my son.

He said, “can you not just use a sponge?”

Wishing you a very happy and healthy, 2024. Thanks for reading!