No Jumping Wednesday!

There is no jumps racing in Britain today, with the flat action coming from Catterick, Salisbury, Leicester and Lingfield. There is racing over both codes in Ireland today with Wexford having the jumps card and the flat card is at Naas. 

National hunt jockey Charlotte Jones rode out her claim at her local track Cartmel on Monday. The jockey has a first-class degree in equine science but does not come from an racing background and she hopes her achievement can attract other women into the sport and take up race-riding. Charlotte hopes her milestone may open up some doors for outside rides also as 75 of her winners have come from James Moffatt. 

Nicky Henderson has also mentioned that his stable star Constitution Hill is back from holidays and looks fantastic, better than he ever has. He has been off the track since Boxing Day after his campaign was cut short due to a respiratory infection that appeared after a bad scope at Kempton in February after a poor performance in a racecourse gallop. He also missed out on some big occasions at Cheltenham and Punchestown due to being admitted to the veterinary hospital after suffering with suspected colic. It's good to hear he's back in fine health and we look forward to seeing him in action again soon. 

Over in Australia, jockey Michelle Payne has announced her retirement from the saddle. She is the first and only female jockey to have won the Melbourne Cup, when winning on the 100-1 outsider Prince of Penzance. She retires with 772 victories to her name, she looks to concentrate on the training side of it now. 

I like elephants...

Everything else is irrelephant. 

Happy Wednesday!