I went to Lapland on the weekend, which was good fun. It was a real winter wonderland – pine forests of deep snow. We had a late night husky ride (they don’t half motor), a reindeer sleigh ride followed by a trek to meet Santa in a hut in the woods and a snowmobile trek. The cabin was decent but the …
Conspiracy
I’m going through a quiet period horse wise. Mon Michel is probably out for the season, and he was possibly my best prospect for this year. Tifernati was bought to go hurdling this year, but he had a massive wart on his backside which had to be removed – he should go in to Gary’s at the beginning of January. …
Black Hole
Two years ago I was on a plane with a senior partner at a large investment bank, and he was filling me in on the latest gossip from the city. Christmas time is bonus time in the city, and 2006 was a good year. He’d heard that there were going to be around 10,000 people in the city receiving bonuses north of £1 million. …
The Pro-claimers
I bought another mare at Tattersalls last week – Veiled Beauty is the dam of The Cheka, and I paid 160k Guineas for her. She’s by Royal Academy out of a decent Khaled Abdulla mare, and she’s in foal to Byron. I’ll be cheering The Cheka on as he goes for glory in 2009. Veiled Beauty will be the fourth and …
Early morning call
If there’s one thing I dread it’s when a trainer calls me unexpectedly in the early morning. Gary Moore called me early on Friday – Mon Michel is probably out for the season with a leg problem. We don’t know how bad it is yet as he kicked and broke the scanner when we tried to take a look, but …
HWPA awards
I went to the HWPA (Horseracing Writers and Photographers Association) awards on Monday. Our table was a mix of Betfair horseracing team and journalists – I had John Cobb (Independent Racing editor) on my right and Guardian writer Greg Wood and his wife on my left. Matt Williams (RP) and Rob Shepherd (NOTW) were also on the table. The general mood was a …
Big Bucks
My poor run continues with Mon Michel soundly beaten at Taunton on Thursday. Again he coughed after the race and he clearly isn’t right. It’s worrying – he has the scope to make a very decent chaser but he needs to be right in himself and he hasn’t shown his best for a while now. Shepherd’s Warning goes on Monday …
I’ve had better
I’ve had better weekends. On Friday in the day my main fancies ran badly, although I found a couple of winners to limit the damage. I had three runners in the evening, all fancied a little bit and they all finished tailed off! I decided to have a go at the Scoop6 on Saturday – I put only one in each of the …
Harty and Hendy
Three runners at Wolverhampton this evening, and I may go up. King’s Head goes in the 8:50 and both Shepherd’s Warning and Effingham go in the 9:20. King’s Head comes here mainly because we haven’t had the right ground to run him over the jumps. He doesn’t like it soft and it’s tough finding the right opportunities for him over …
Process of elimination
Mon Michel disappointed at Fontwell – he travelled well enough but faded to 5th at the end of the race. We were expecting better. He scoped clean and his blood was good after the race but he did cough – I don’t think he was 100%. No matter – he’s filled out and he’s ripe to go chasing now. Both of my …