Chilly Start

It has certainly been a bit colder in the mornings so far this week and it was another chilly start with a white frost on the ground and temperatures just below freezing.  There are three meetings taking place this afternoon with jumps cards from Southwell and Sedgefield and an all-weather flat fixture from Wolverhampton.  Despite some tracks watering, the meetings have still failed to attract many runners with Southwell, who are offering good ground for their seven race card, only featuring one contest with more than seven runners.  There are no such problems in Ireland where Punchestown's eight race meeting features 123 runners.

There are no runners from the Pond House team today with our next runners likely to come on Thursday.  We have loads of entries then, for which we have to declare at 10am this morning.

I see that David kept Remastered in the Ladbrokes Trophy at Newbury on Saturday at the latest stage.  Our eight year old gelding loves the mud so the trainer will certainly be doing a rain dance over the coming days.  The ground at the Berkshire track is currently good to soft and watered.  It's December next week...can you remember the last time the courses were watering so late in the year?!

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There is Champions League football action to look forward to tonight with Chelsea at home to Juventus.  Chelsea are playing really well, but they face the table toppers tonight, although they only need a point from their last two matches to qualify.  Meanwhile, Manchester United travel to Villareal after a turbulent weekend which saw them part ways with their manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.  Former United player Michael Carrick has inherited the poisoned chalice, sorry, interim role.

The UK Championship snooker gets underway in York today and Neil Robertson is the defending champion having beaten Judd Trump in an epic final last year.  Trump looked good as he won the Champion of Champions on Sunday, thrashing John Higgins.  Higgins, who has been beaten in the last three finals this season is in action again today and whilst he faces a simple task on paper, his busy schedule could take its toll sooner rather than later.

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I was up all night wondering where the sun had gone...and then it dawned on me!