Last Racing Before Xmas!

Well despite further heavy rain overnight the signs for racing today are looking positive with Haydock passing an early morning inspection - the stable has one runner at the meeting with Conor O'Farrell partnering Top Wood.  One thing is for sure, the ground is sure to be very testing.  There are three other meetings taking place with Ascot hosting an excellent jumps card featuring the Ladbroke Hurdle, while there are all-weather flat meetings taking place at Lingfield and Wolverhampton.  We have five runners at Ascot - Kazlian (pictured above) and Dan Breen in the big one, as well as Wings Of Icarus, My Brother Sylvest and El Lobo.  The bottomless ground will no doubt sort out plenty of the fields today, so whatever you do make sure your horse is going to handle heavy going.

Here's an interesting statistic for you regarding The Ladbroke.  David (or Martin) or Nicky Henderson have won six of the last ten renewals of the Ladbroke (the race has been abandoned twice during that period) - I wonder what odds that one of them has the winner today?  Hopefully it will be David's turn again following the success of Acambo in 2006!

I thought that Kings Palace ran a cracker in defeat in the Listed bumper at Ascot yesterday afternoon.  I know that he was odds-on favourite following his success at Plumpton, but he finished a close second to an older rival who is clearly very decent, the pair of them coming nicely clear of the remainder.  Kings Palace is still only a baby and remains a lovely prospect - he was a little keen in front yesterday and will continue to improve as he gains experience.

At the risk of sounding like the chairman of his fanclub, I thought that young Willie Twiston-Davies gave another one a great ride yesterday.  Tingo In The Tale was always in the right place in a race that developed into a sprint.  Willie is clearly riding with great confidence at present and is in tremendous form - perhaps I should ask him if he would like me to be his agent?!

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I see that it is Peter Hedger 73rd birthday today, so many happy returns to him.  I knew Peter when he used to deliver fruit and veg to Warners Holiday Camps.  He only had two horses back then, but I still remember him turning up to Taunton one day and telling me that he was going to have a winner.  Well, he did...at odds of 50/1 no less!  He is certainly a better trainer than delivery driver!

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My wife is still gloating after her wager on Strictly Come Dancing looks set to come fruition.  She backed Louis and Flava at a big price and also had a flutter on Denise Van Outen and James Jordan, although I think she has done her money on the latter pair as the public don't seem to like her.

Personally I will be having treble on the football - my teams are Chelsea, Liverpool and West Brom.  Surely Liverpool cannot play as badly again, while West Brom should have beaten the Hammers and Chelsea have been in good form - it all sounds so easy!