Farewell Craig

There are no runners from Pond House today but there is jump racing action at Ascot this afternoon.  They have some good, competitive races with plenty of runners throughout the card.  Perhaps the most interesting race is the juvenile handicap hurdle at 3.00pm where 15 runners go to post.  There are not many of these type of races and plenty of these runners were in action at the Cheltenham Festival.  One horse that particularly caught my eye in this race was Grappa Nino ridden by Sean Bowen.  He is travelling across the Irish Sea, trained by the very shrewd Dermot Weld and racing off a mark of 115.  He won a 25 runner maiden hurdle at Navan at the beginning of March and although he wasn’t even that highly rated on the flat he might well be a better hurdler and I don’t think connections would be travelling over for a day out! 

There is just the one flat meeting today at Doncaster while in Ireland they have jumps racing at Downpatrick and flat action at Leopardstown.   

It was a sad day for the yard on Friday as we said farewell to travelling head lad Craig Wylie.  Craig has worked at Pond House for nearly 28 years but he decided last Autumn that this season would be his last as he and partner Lynn are heading back to their roots in Scotland.  We all went for drinks at the Culm Valley pub on Thursday evening and there was a great turnout from past and present members of staff, including a certain AP McCoy who came.  Craig is well known in the racing world and we will certainly miss his quick wit and humour back at the yard!  Ben Dixon is taking over his role as a travelling head lad working alongside Bob Hodge who has been here for many years.  Ben used to work at Pond House many years ago and also rode as an amateur jockeys before going off to work in the building trade.  He and his family have had point to pointers of their own for many years, ridden by their son Tom and when the position of travelling head lad became available he jumped at the chance.  He has been going to the races alongside Craig and Bob in recent weeks and started full time last Monday.

Margot Scudamore was in riding out with dad Tom yesterday.  Now 16 she can't wait to start race riding on the flat and plans to have her first rides in the Summer after finishing her GCSE's!

Today there are two Premiership football matches and my team Manchester United are in action at 4.30pm away to Newcastle.  It will be a tough game but hopefully the Reds can get a result.  The 2.00pm kick off game is West Ham against Southampton. 

I was due to be going point to pointing at Cherrybrook on the edge of Dartmoor today but unfortunately is has been abandoned due to waterlogging, they are hoping to find a new date.

The first rule of passive aggressive club is…

You know what, never mind.  It’s fine.  Happy Sunday!