Another Blank Day!

It is another blank day for jumps racing with both Lingfield and Market Rasen having been abandoned due to frozen conditions.  We did have Ben Lilly and King Turgeon declared to run at Market Rasen but that was called off just before lunchtime yesterday, after the course had seemed fairly hopeful of racing for most of the week.  We had our coldest night of the year so far on Wednesday evening at -8c at Pond House and it isn’t much warmer today!  It was a lovely day however with the sun out but temperatures didn’t get to about 0c until midday and you definitely wouldn’t canter horses on the grass at present. 

This is when the gallops come into their own.  We have been covering the woodchip and the team of staff have got to process down to a fine art this week of taking the covers off and putting them back on again in the afternoons in double quick time.  Mike is on tractor duty harrowing and rolling and it was a good effort from all the staff to get all the horses exercised as per normal in freezing conditions.  Prospects of any jumps racing on Saturday look pretty slim with Ascot and Haydock already abandoned and Taunton have an inspection today.  Things do look more hopeful for jumps action returning on Sunday however with temperatures set to rise and the rain returning over the weekend.  It will take a little while for the frost to come out of the ground but fingers crossed things start to warm up and jumping resumes.

There are two all-weather meetings in Britain today at Wolverhampton and Newcastle and in Ireland they also have action on the all-weather at Dundalk.

I was sad to hear of the passing of Peter Deal earlier this week at the age of 84.  Mr Deal was an owner at Pond House long before I arrived here in 2003 and owned 1997 Champion hurdle winner Make A Stand.  He also owned many other great horses both here and with other trainers, but Blowing Wind was a dual Cheltenham Festival winner and he won the £50,000 bonus for winning the Imperial Cup at Sandown before going onto win the County hurdle at Cheltenham just five days later.  He also owned Mamlook who won the Chester Cup under Richard Hughes and too many more to mention individually.  While he hasn’t been involved in ownership so much in recent years he was a great family friend of the Pipe’s and we would seem him regularly and speak on the phone.  He was a lovely gentle and kind man who always had time for me, he was very knowledgeable about horses and the racing and would always share a joke as well.  My thoughts and best wishes are with his wife Pam, daughter Michelle and the rest of the family at this time.

There is no football action this evening but in the Australian Open tennis there was a win for Cam Norrie who is through to the third round but losses for fellow Brits Jack Draper, Katie Boulter and Emma Raducanu.

In the Dubai Golf Classic a relatively unknown Brit is leading the way at -5 called Andy Sullivan.  When I left for work on Thursday morning Rory McIlory was doing quite well but he finished the first round four shots off the lead at -1.  The action continues today.

It was so cold yesterday my computer froze…

It was my own fault though, I left too many windows open!

Happy Friday!