Get the notebooks ready

Look-ahead at the week’s racing
The thaw in the weather came too late to save the Sandown “Tingle Creek” meeting on Saturday, and the race has been transferred to the Cheltenham meeting this coming Saturday (11th).

Yesterday’s re-scheduled meeting at Exeter was a brief respite for jump racing fans. Paul Nicholl’s Sanctuaire flopped again and now has lots to prove. The 4-mile h’cap chase had 8 fences omitted due to bad ground and that result is of debateable value.

Today’s planned meetings at Bangor and Musselburgh have both been abandoned. Racing planned for the rest of the week also looks dodgy . Tuesday’s jump meeting at Sedgefield has already been abandoned, and there is an inspection this afternoon for Fontwell (which may well go ahead given its proximity to the coast).

Wednesday’s jump meeting at Hexham has already been abandoned, tho’ the meeting at Leicester looks a goer (in my opinion). There is an inspection planned this morning and I would expect this to pass.

By Thursday, we should be back to normal.

In a few weeks times we will enter the most important period in the jumps racing calendar; that between Boxing Day (26th December) and Valentine’s Day (14th February) when just about every horse, that will go on to win at the coming Cheltenham Festival in March, will run. Get the notebook ready, the pencil sharpened and be ready to view the races – especially those in Ireland. Looking at the novice championship races (Arkle and RSA), I am surprised we’ve not seen the markets for these races firm-up as, by this time last year, Sizing Europe had run (and won) twice, and Weapons Amnesty had run three times (won once). It could be that we have already seen the winners of these races over fences – but we’ve not noticed them just yet.

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Thanks from Wayward Lad