Wait Is Nearly Over!

The good news is that both National Hunt meetings this afternoon at Taunton and Plumpton go ahead after their precautionary inspections were cancelled.  We have had a slight covering of snow down in Brixham which is unusual, especially when you consider that it is the first snow of the winter and there has been snow around the stable.  The stable has runners at both meetings with Broadway Buffalo (pictured above) looking to extend his unbeaten record to five at Plumpton, while Qalinas a last time out winner bids to follow-up at Taunton under winning amateur jockey Mr Michael Heard.

Although we had no winners at the weekend, it was good to see the stable's runners continue in good form.  Edmund Kean finished third of sixteen in the EBF Final at Sandown in a gruelling racein which only half of the field managed to finish.  Meanwhile our two runners in the Imperial Cup finished second and third - Tanerko Emery finished best in second, beaten 3 1/2 lengths which was a good effort when you consider he was conceding a stone to the winner.  Kazlian looked likely to prevail until ploughing through the second last hurdle.

It is good to see the horses continuing to run well with the most important fixture of the year starting tomorrow.  The big news that broke yesterday was that David has decided to go down the 2 1/2 mile route with Dynaste and he will take his chance in the Jewson on Thursday.

Looking through the Cheltenham markets, I see that David has three forecast favourites in Dynaste, Ballynagour and Gevrey Chambertin - my wife will probably have a go at the treble...I hope she is right!

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Did you know that former jockey Adrian Maguire's first ride at the Cheltenham Festival in 1991 was a winner for MCP?  The horse was called Omerta and he turned the Kim Muir Handicap Chase into a procession.  I can't believe that it was 22 years ago...I still remember it as if it was yesterday.  The trouble is I can barely remember what I did yesterday...it must be something to do with my age!

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There were some exciting football matches yesterday as Chelsea produced a great comeback from 2-0 down against Manchester United to force an FA Cup replay with a 2-2 draw.  Meanwhile Liverpool somehow managed to beat Spurs 3-2 despite Tottenham looking the better team - a couple of terrible mistakes at the back cost the London side dear and Liverpool were able to capitalise.

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Thought for the day - the worst part of having success is to try to find someone who is happy for you!