Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all and welcome to 2024!  We may be in a new year but the weather is continuing as it finished the last…wet!! Both scheduled jumps meetings for Wednesday were abandoned before the declarations stage while I am sure Exeter may have struggled to race had their meeting been today rather than yesterday with a lot of rain falling overnight once again.  It has been the wettest year at Pond House since 2012 and our second highest recorded rainfall since we have been keeping records for over 20 years. 

1210.5mm of rain was recorded for the year, September was the wettest month (just) with 168.5mm of rain with November a close second with 167.5mm.  In September the office flooded, the first time it has ever done that as far as I can remember, over 86mm of rain fell in just a couple of hours that day.  June was the driest month of the year with 24mm of rain but then there is quite a big jump up to the second driest month of the year, May which recorded 76mm of rainfall.  The most rainy days actually came in March when there were 22 of them!  After a wet start to this week things are set to turn colder and drier towards the weekend.  Our climate and weather is definitely changing and it is interesting just to keep an eye on it all. 

After a busy Christmas period things will start to return to normal, including the kids going back to school at the end on the week!  The children have had a great holiday period and Jack has suddenly got the racing bug and been racing with me most days which has been nice.  The horses have been running okay and we have had quite a few placings, hopefully they can now turn into winner in the coming days!

This Week

After two third places at Exeter on New Year’s Day with Chauffeur Driven and Pachacuti we have travelled a bit further with our horses on Tuesday with Ya Know Yaseff and Ben Lilly running at Fakenham.  Ocean Heights heads back to Kempton to run on the flat again on Wednesday.  It was great to get a nice win from him two weeks ago at the track and hopefully he can follow up.  The handicapper put him up four pounds to a rating of 79 for that win but the same jockey’s rides, Aidan Brookes.  The last race was an apprentice race and he did not claim, while this one is not so he takes off five pounds which negates the rise.  It is a slight drop back in trip but that is not a worry and hopefully he can follow up, although he is drawn 14, out in the car park!

Thursday and Friday are relatively quiet but Pub Crawl may make his stable debut on the all-weather on Friday at Southwell.  On Saturday we have entries at Sandown and Wincanton and on Sunday at Chepstow and Plumpton.  Keep checking the Daily News on the website for the latest news on the stable runners.

Ramses De Teillee

On Saturday Ramses De Teillee has his first entry of the season in the veterans chase final at Sandown.  Our popular grey turned 12 this week, not that you would know it from his behaviour at home! He is the same at home, full of beans as he was when he arrived at Pond House as a four year old and he is a joy to have in the yard.  This race has been the long term plan since he finished runner up in it last year.  He has had further wind surgery and will run on Saturday off a four pound lower mark that 12 months ago.  He won’t mind any rain that falls this week and I am excited by his chances

Gearoid Harney

Unfortunately our conditional jockey Gearoid Harney will be out of action for a few weeks with a broken collarbone.  He took a heavy fall at Taunton on Saturday and was stood down from the rest of his rides with concussion but a trip to hospital confirmed a broken collarbone as well.  He is fine in himself and just gutted to be missing such a busy period when things were going well for him but that is the nature of the job.