Asbo

My house is a building site at the moment – they’re working in half of it and we’re living in the other half.  The whole place is covered in brick dust – it seems that no matter what we do to keep the dust out it finds a way through. The highlight of the week occurred a couple of days …

Grace and Beauty

A day of sport for me yesterday. I spent the morning with the children.  We have a couple of extras with us at the moment as one of the mothers at school had an accident with her 2yo boy – he fell out of a climbing frame and broke his femur.  He faces two weeks in traction and morphine injections – …

Haighgate

I’m not right at the moment – I’ve had a headache for about ten days and I’ve got blood in my nose.  Today is the first time in a while that I’ve felt properly human, although the headache is still just hanging in there – it started when I came off the beta-blockers.  I need to get this sorted once …

A force to be reckoned with

No good today with Lilac.  I thought she looked a little burly beforehand – she led for most of the race but went out like a light.  Richard said she tried to change her legs five or six times during the race.  It was probably down to lack of fitness – we’ll know more tomorrow. Lilac had really filled out …

Clean pair of heels

Good and bad news on the mares.  Baldovina has been scanned in foal to Red Clubs.  Park Acclaim was scanned in foal to Kyllachy, but has re-absorbed the foetus .  It’s not uncommon – she needs to be covered again now.  Shawhill has been covered by Selkirk and we wait to hear the result. Astrodome is well and runs on either …

Friday 13th part 2

A good if slightly overlong week with some excellent races to savour.  I had big bets on Starluck in the Triumph and Tatenen in the Arkle, both failing, but I made the ground back on a few lesser races and finished nicely up for the week. Kauto Star did the business again and reminded us all what a star he truly is.  …

Friday 13th part 1

A good day yesterday in most senses.  I had a fair bet on Kayf Aramis, which put me right for the week.  I decided not to bet in the two big races and lost a little money at the end of the day. It was a long beery social day in the great Cheltenham tradition.  I crashed out late and …

Back in the fray

A bad day 1 financially but I made some of it back yesterday.  I don’t think I’ll be betting much today as I’ve got such a busy day on – I’ll back a few rank outsiders to keep me interested. Latin America was well beaten in the bumper yesterday, but we were happy with the performance.  He couldn’t go the pace …

Ultimate Disco

A busy weekend over that involved ferrying my children around to various party venues and shows. On Saturday Jane and I took the girls up to town with some of their friends to see “Wicked” – the untold story of the witches of Oz. The boys went to Wimbledon theatre with their grandmother to see Scooby Doo. We went to …

More silverware

A win for Astrodome on Wednesday, and hopefully evidence that he has a proper future in jumping. He’s a great looking horse and he jumps like a pro. He could be a decent hurdler and looks like he might have to scope to make up into a proper chaser. Fingers crossed that he continues to progress. Hector Spectre came third …