Busy Boxing Day

                Grands Crus

I hope everyone had a very happy Christmas day but this is the by far the best day for me with all the sporting action taking place!  There are many meetings on this afternoon plus all the football matches as well.  I am pleased to report that despite all the rain all the meetings have passed their inspections and racing is ON! The yard started early and is very busy this morning with the stable having runners at six meetings and I can tell you it was quite a task to make sure all the horses and the staff set off in the right lorries to the right races!  We were of course busy yesterday on Christmas day and I am pleased to be able to show a little video clip of the Christmas morning gallops with todays runners in action and when the staff wear their santa hats and get in the Festive spirit! Click on the read more to see the video.

GOPR0097-001 from David Pipe on Vimeo.

Of course the big meeting of the day is at Kempton where we have Dynaste running in the Feltham novice chase and Grands Crus and Junior in the big race itself the King George.  Katkeau runs in the concluding race on the card and we shall be keeping our fingers crossed that all our runners run well and that Grands Crus can re-establish his form after his minor wind operation.  Whenever you go racing on boxing day it is more like a family day our and it is a shame that Newton Abbot sold their Boxing day fixture a few years ago as it was always a great day out.  It is probably the biggest days earner of the year for these tracks and it is well worth going if you can get to a meeting near you. 

One headache we always have with so many meetings on is finding enough jockeys.  Tom Scu and Conor O'Farrell go to Kempton.  Kieron Edgar is at Ffos Las, Mikey Ennis at Fontwell, Hadden Frost at Towcester and a few of our lads are at Wincanton.  Tom Bellamy, Sam Welton, and Michael Heard take the rides at Wincanton and Andrew Glassonbury rides Davids two runners at Market Rasen.  I hope you all enjoyed your Christmas dinner and spare a thought for a few jockeys who would have had to go without any lunch if they are doing light weights this afternoon!

I have spent the last couple of days with my nose in the form book.  The problem is are that there are so many meetings to check!  One of the most interesting pointers I look at on a busy day is where the stable jockeys are riding.  The majority of the time, but not always, they have the choice and go to the tracks where they think they are most likely to get winners.  Particularly look out for AP, Jason Maguire and Richard Johnson as they usually have a winner or two on a card!

So how many Christmas presents did you get that were useless?  One of my friends always buys me a scarf.  I never wear scarves.  Mind you, I will pass it on to someone else who never wears a scarf, maybe MCP?!  I read that over £500,000 is often spent on presents that are never wanted, what a lot of wasted money!

My football treble is Fulham, Middlesborough and Cheltenham.  Have a great Boxing Day everybody.