I’ll be brief again today as I’m on cooking duty – I cook a mean Shepherd’s Pie. Jane got me a couple of framed photos for Christmas – Bouguereau in the Derby and Winker in the July Stakes. They were fantastic professionally taken photos that I’d never seen before – I’ll post them in here when I get time. I couldn’t have been more …
Sporting Greats
Today I will be backing mostly sporting greats at Leopardstown. Kempes goes in the first, and he’s a warm order this morning. It’s a tough one to fathom – he appeared to prefer top of the ground on the flat, although he did well on soft ground on his only hurdle. He may improve for the move to Willie Mullins. …
Back at the knee
Christmas at Black Towers was a fairly quiet affair with most of the family ill. It was pleasant though – traditional and understated. We’ve all had the flu now, and I blame the flights to and from Lapland. I’d love to see a statistical analysis of how much of the time people get ill after flights – if I’m a representative sample it …
HAPPY CHRISTMAS
… and a happy new year to all readers of the blog. It’s a bit belated – I took to my bed early on Christmas Eve with a bad case of flu. Will 2009 be a better year than 2008 or will it just be a hideous year of social unrest? Is the world a better place for the events …
Momentous day
I went to Lapland on the weekend, which was good fun. It was a real winter wonderland – pine forests of deep snow. We had a late night husky ride (they don’t half motor), a reindeer sleigh ride followed by a trek to meet Santa in a hut in the woods and a snowmobile trek. The cabin was decent but the …
Conspiracy
I’m going through a quiet period horse wise. Mon Michel is probably out for the season, and he was possibly my best prospect for this year. Tifernati was bought to go hurdling this year, but he had a massive wart on his backside which had to be removed – he should go in to Gary’s at the beginning of January. …
Black Hole
Two years ago I was on a plane with a senior partner at a large investment bank, and he was filling me in on the latest gossip from the city. Christmas time is bonus time in the city, and 2006 was a good year. He’d heard that there were going to be around 10,000 people in the city receiving bonuses north of £1 million. …
The Pro-claimers
I bought another mare at Tattersalls last week – Veiled Beauty is the dam of The Cheka, and I paid 160k Guineas for her. She’s by Royal Academy out of a decent Khaled Abdulla mare, and she’s in foal to Byron. I’ll be cheering The Cheka on as he goes for glory in 2009. Veiled Beauty will be the fourth and …
Early morning call
If there’s one thing I dread it’s when a trainer calls me unexpectedly in the early morning. Gary Moore called me early on Friday – Mon Michel is probably out for the season with a leg problem. We don’t know how bad it is yet as he kicked and broke the scanner when we tried to take a look, but …
HWPA awards
I went to the HWPA (Horseracing Writers and Photographers Association) awards on Monday. Our table was a mix of Betfair horseracing team and journalists – I had John Cobb (Independent Racing editor) on my right and Guardian writer Greg Wood and his wife on my left. Matt Williams (RP) and Rob Shepherd (NOTW) were also on the table. The general mood was a …