New Year's Racing

   Thanksforthehelp runs at Windsor Today

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a good evening celebrating the New Year in whatever you may have been up to, I did not last until midnight with an early start again this morning!  There are five scheduled jumps fixtures today and news is filtering through as I write about which meetings are going ahead.  There were no problems at Catterick, Cheltenham or Musselburgh while Windsor has passed it's 7am check.  Exeter are cautiously optimistic of racing and have scheduled a further inspection at 10.15am.  There are two all-weather fixtures at Southwell and Newcastle and in Ireland they have two jumps cards at Tramore and Fairyhouse.  Plenty of action for all of us to watch this afternoon.

We kick the New Year off with three runners, one at Windsor and two at Exeter if racing goes ahead.  Thanksforthehelp runs in the 2.50pm valuable handicap hurdle over 2m4f and Jack Tudor rides.  On his penultimate start he won a competitive race at Punchestown but disappointed on his only other start since at Newbury. His win at Punchestown was over 2m3f and last time was three miles and I am hoping he will prefer the drop back in trip today.  He won't mind the ground and it remains to be seen if he gets on well at the track as it is something a little different than he will be used to as it is a unique configuration.  He is about 14/1 in the betting and I would hope he has a good each way chance.

We have two runners at Exeter if it goes ahead, Harley's Pride and Pachacuti and Rian Corcoran rides both.  Harley's Pride runs in the 1.10pm mares maiden hurdle over 2m2f.  Her Bumper form is okay but she has been a little disappointing in two starts over hurdles so far.  The ability is definitely there at home but she is a quirky character and this has been evident to date in her hurdle starts.  She will be better once handicapped and today's race is a stepping stone towards that, reflected in her big odds today.  It is Rian's first ride on her today and hopefully he can get a good tune out of her and give us something to build on going forwards.

Pachacuti runs in the 2.55pm handicap hurdle over 2m5f and he wears a visor for the first time.  He has had three starts over fences so far this season and ran well in one of those starts but pulled up in the other two.  We revert to hurdles today and he is very well handicapped should he choose to put his best foot forward, especially with Rian taking seven pounds off.  It may take a leap of faith to back him but I wouldn't be surprised if he were to run well, nor would I be surprised if he didn't, if only he could talk!  He has the ability so fingers crossed he can run well.

There is plenty of good racing action to look forward to both sides of the Irish sea today so once I have got all the work done I shall be sitting down to watch as much of it as I can!  

There are four Premiership football matches today, but they don't kick off until all the racing action has finished.  Crystal Palace play Fulham and Liverpool play Leeds and both of these games are at 5.30pm  Brentford v Spurs and Sunderland v Man City both kick off at 8pm.  If you like the darts, the action resumes today with the quarter final matches.  The first session gets underway at 12.30pm  Luke Littler and Luke Humphries both in action this evening which starts at 7pm.  

I received a top secret message but the only word I could understand was "eggs".

It sounded like the message was scrambled!

Happy New Year and enjoy a great day.