It’s all a bit quiet in the lead up to Cheltenham, and not much to blog about. I’m very busy at work and fairly engaged in it all at the moment, so I haven’t been following the racing. One of my syndicates is in the process of buying another horse for the jumps in Ireland, and I’ll update on that …

Saturday was a disappointing day. Mon Michel was running at Kempton, and having given the matter some thought I concluded that at 14-1 he was an outstanding bet. I don€™t normally proactively tip my horses, but I decided to share the good news. I rang my mother, my uncle and my sister and told them to have a good bet …

I was disappointed to read today that Wimbledon have decided to award equal prize money to men and women, bowing to political pressure and bringing them in line with the other grand slams. It’s a case of politics ahead of commercials, it’s not a decision that can ever be reversed and it sets a dangerous precedent for other sports. This …

Damn and blast. With Lingfield called off we lost a lot more than a day at the races – we lose the opportunity to give Mon Michel a prep race, but more significantly we can’t go for the Fred Winter now as we won’t have the required three races for a handicap mark in the bag by Saturday. We’ll almost …

I went to the €œSharp Edge Entrepreneurial Awards€ last night. It€™s a great honour to be nominated for awards but I have a real phobia about public speaking, and when I realised that all the winners were making short rousing speeches I started drinking hard and praying that we wouldn€™t win. We won the main prize, and I shuffled up …

I got back from a weeks holiday on Dartmoor on Thursday night and didn’t go into the office on Friday. It gave me a chance to catch up with the horses and hatch a few plans. Straw Bear was down to run in the Kingwell hurdle, and he had the look of a banker about him. He’s a real pro …

I travelled up to Newmarket after work and checked into a hotel. I had an early start this morning at Pete Chapple-Hyam’s where I was hoping to see a few of our horses work, but the weather got in the way. I spent a while there and had a good chat with Pete. It’s early days but I’m really excited …

BETTER TOGETHER ran well down the field at Chepstow – apparently he jumped ok and he looks to have come back alright. His day will come but it is probably a long way off. Nick runs his “superstar” in the Agfa hurdle at Sandown tomorrow. There is no horse I have enjoyed watching on the gallops more than STRAW BEAR …

I’ve been looking a little further into the Triumph and the market looks seriously lopsided to me. The majority of the principals in the Triumph are horses who want or need it soft, and Cheltenham is invariably good or better. Since 1990 Cheltenham (on Gold Cup day) has been soft once (1995) and G/S once (1999) – it’s nearly always …

I sold BERKHAMSTED at the Doncaster sale today. He went for 12,000 Guineas, bought by Evan Williams who will now take him jumping. He may turn out to be a decent hurdler – he has enough size and he stays. I made a small profit on him but with training costs I am out of pocket – no regrets though. …