- Monday, 27 December 2010 07:58
- Written by Chester Barnes
We have temperatures of 4c at Pond House this morning! It is the first time that temperatures have been above zero at this time of day for a long time, which is great news. We still have several inches of snow so it is going to need to stay at these sort of temperatures for a while to melt it all, but there is hope! I remember back in 1962/63 when there was no racing in England from 23rd December to 7th March with the loss of 94 race meetings. Just imagine if there was a similar sort of bad weather this winter, I'm sure there would be several more fixtures lost than that due to the increase in meetings. It is lucky these days as well that we have some all-weather racing to keep us going.
If they put the King George back any further it will be the summer King George! The new date of the race is January 15th and they will also stage the Grade 1 Christmas hurdle, although maybe we could call it the Easter hurdle! Surely they can get a meeting on before the 15th January?
- Sunday, 26 December 2010 08:49
- Written by Chester Barnes
I do hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day? What a shame but there is no racing on today as the last remaining hopes of seeing any action at Fontwell and Wolverhampton were wiped out when they were both abandoned this morning after inspections. It was a very cold night across the country with temperatures still on at -7C at Pond House at 8.30am this morning! It is a real sporting day however in the Barnes household. I am very lucky in Brixham with the weather not quite as bad as everywhere else and my local golf course, Churston is having a Texas scarmble competition this morning and later on I shall be watching the football, Fulham versus West Ham. It is such a shame that the King George has been abandoned as it is tradition in my household to be watching Kempton on Boxing Day. They hope to run the re-arranged King George and the William Hill Christmas Hurdle in the card at the track tomorrow and what a days action that proposes to be, but once again we are in the lap of the gods as to whether any racing will actually take place. They are inspecting the course at 2pm this afternoon so we shall know our fate later today.
- Saturday, 25 December 2010 00:00
- Written by Chester Barnes
Well, I hope the fat jolly fella with the white beard and red suit came to visit and brought you everything you wanted for Christmas. Sadly I didn't get my Christmas wish as the King George at Kempton tomorrow has already been abandoned, however there is word that the race may yet be rescheduled - let's hope so. This afternoon I will be sat down with a fat bird...no, not that sort - a nice plump turkey!
- Friday, 24 December 2010 07:45
- Written by Chester Barnes
It looks like we are just going to have to feast on Christmas leftovers and all-weather racing on Boxing Day! Huntingdon, Market Rasen, Towcester, Wetherby, Wincanton, Down Royal and Leopardstown have already been abandoned and Fontwell say there is only a 50-50 chance of racing going ahead...although that is not what my mate said who lives down the road in Bognor Regis. Course officials are even inspecting the all-weather course at Wolverhampton at 6.30am on Sunday! The good news that Down Royal and Leopardstown have moved their meetings to Thursday, although both courses still admit to being up against it. Monday's Welsh National card at Chepstow has also fallen by the wayside although they have been quick to move the entire meeting to January 8th - hopefully this will give the course enough time to thaw out.
- Thursday, 23 December 2010 07:40
- Written by Chester Barnes
What an amazing week for A P McCoy, first he wins BBC Sports Personality of the Year and now he gets the prized ride on Kauto Star in the King George. It is a great shame for Noel Fehily, who ruled himself out after suffering a recurrence of his wrist injury. A P was supposed to ride Albertas Run, so it was very understanding of owner Trevor Hemmings to excuse him to ride the big race favourite - I bet A P will be praying that there is no frost on Saturday night. Let's hope that Kempton gets the green light as for me, Boxing Day racing is one of the best days of the year. I can remember when they had the meeting on at our local track Newton Abbot, sadly the inevitable bad weather forced them to sell their fixture to Towcester a few years ago - ironically they have already abandoned this year's meeting!
- Wednesday, 22 December 2010 08:11
- Written by Chester Barnes
Well, they say that Kempton's turf track which will hold the King George VI chase on Boxing Day is raceable...there is a picture of clerk of the course Barry Clifford on the front page of today's Racing Post digging a fork into the turf. The thing that would worry me is the amount of snow that seems to be lying in the background on top of the covers. I know that Barry is a lot more qualified than me but I wouldn't think that they could take an awful lot more snow - let's hope that the thaw comes and we can get some more jumps racing. We don't really want to lose the King George on top of the other meetings that have already fallen by the wayside.
- Tuesday, 21 December 2010 08:21
- Written by Chester Barnes
It is great news to hear that we have racing at Southwell and Kempton today after a total wipe out yesterday. It is a strange card at Kempton with all seven flat races for National Hunt horses. My only concern is that all the runners can actually make it to the track! Pond House has 8-10 inches of snow but thankfully yesterdays hard work of digging some tracks meant that our lorry was able to get out this morning and is safely well on the way to Kempton. There is a 10 year old running on the all-weather this afternoon and I am sure it will be an experience for some of the older horses,it will definitely sharpen them up at least! I imagine that several trainers will not have been able to do that much fast work with their horses at home recently because of the bad weather and it will certainly be interesting watching this afternoon. I would just like to say a big well done to Kempton and the BHA and whoever else was involved in getting this fixture arranged last minute. With the weather causing such havoc it is great to have some racing taking place. Fingers crossed the weather improves as it would be great to see some proper jumping action on Boxing Day.
