Below Freezing

The weather is finally taking its grip this week and we have unfortunately already lost todays meetings at Ludlow and Leicester.  I am pleased to report that Newcastle does go ahead, as does the all-weather meeting at Kempton so there is at least some action to keep us going today.  Temperatures are -2c at Pond House this morning but add the the wind chill factor and it feels much colder!  Thankfully we have a great team of tractor staff who help keep the all-weather gallop in action and there are no problems to the normal execise routine this morning.  We do have to count ourselves lucky however as I was hearig on the news it is -45c in Moscow this morning, I dread to think what waking up to those sort of temperatures is like!  It was also at least -30c in places like Poland, Ukraine and Bosnia and it was even -14c in Greece!

The BHA are apparantly in the process of organising some all-weather fixtures for the weekend as temperatures are set to remain low and could interrupt the normal jumps fixtures for the next few days.  This is good forward thinking as if the weather does cause problems to the jumps racing then at least we have some action to watch and compared to last year we have got off relatively lightly so far so I hope this is only a short cold snap!  I have another photo from the gallops and Martial Law is working upsides recent Leicester winner Kazlian.
  
            Martial Law & Kazlian                        

The stables runners performed okay at Taunton yesterday.  The ground looked very testing and Beattie Green improved on her hurdles debut and finished fourth although it does look like our mare would appreciate better ground.  The winner of her race, Dildar is a high clas French flat performer and is being talked up for the triumph hurdle at the Festival.  All I can say is that he will have to jumnp a lot better if he is to stand any chance of winning the big race, in fact some of the firms pushed his price out following his performance yesterday.  I thought Bathwick Brave also ran alright and he might need a longer trip in time.  Woodlark Island did also not run too badly after a break and all three look capable of winning in the future.  The most impressive winner of the day was Saunctuaire.  He looked to run away with Ruby Walsh over the first few fences on his chasing debut but he just kept galloping and won very easily indeed.

In the football I see a Russian club tried to buy Arsenal's Russian star Andrey Arshavin but he seem to like living in the Capital and did not want to move.  He probably thinks he is too good to go back to Moscow!  Meanwhile Everton beat the league leaders Manchestyer City 1-0 to throw the Premiership wide open at the top again.  Manchester United are now level on points.  The Premier League is probably the best in the World and it is great it is such an open title race this year.