A losing start yesterday but Quevega limited the damage. It was disappointing to see Khyber Kim beaten by Binocular – it was hard to go with Binocular with question marks over his wellbeing. I travelled up early with Bob, a co-owner in my horses with Nick Gifford. We arrived in Cheltenham at around 12. Bob refused to take me to …

Day 1 coming up, and I’m off early tomorrow for the full four days as usual. My impression of the card; Supreme Novices I’m going to sit this one out. Dunguib is a fantastic prospect but his jumping might let him down. I don’t want to back him at short odds and I don’t want to be betting that he …

… they probably will in games without frontiers… This is a line from a Peter Gabriel song. Many years ago I had an argument with my brother in law about this that ran for several days. I said the line was grammatically incorrect – it should be “if looks could kill they probably would”. He said either was ok. In …

More pictures have come in, so without further delay; So who are these beasts? First in line, this magnificent vision in white is Nemo Spirit, a 5yo gelding that Michael and I bought in the October HIT for 100k guineas. He stays forever and we will target the top staying handicaps with him. He’s nicely formed in front but weak …

I’m betting very little at the moment – most days I don’t look at the card, and when I do I don’t have any great inspiration. My life is busier than ever – lots of business interests, a busy family life, a major development rolling along at my farm, everything bubbling away at Manor House, all my horse interests and …

It was busy last week with a combination of strategy meetings for Betfair and Swindon along with half term. On Tuesday I packed the family in the car and we headed west. First stop Manton, and we got there just before 10. They do a nice cooked breakfast there, which was welcome. Brian came round and we went out in …

I played in a big charity poker event on Tuesday at Les Ambassadeurs just off Park Lane – it’s an annual event that I always play in. It was a good boost for my celebrity count. Terry Wogan was the compere, and he put up an raffle prize for someone to appear as a guest on his new radio show. …

An up and down week. On Tuesday I went to the County Ground to watch Swindon play Leeds – I sat next to Mick Channon who comes along to Swindon matches from time to time. Mick said from the start that he thought we would win – Leeds are flying high in the Cup but seem to be struggling to …

Time for my annual blog on the investment year in view. It’s a bit late, but then I’m late on everything at the moment. Last year’s recommendations worked out well. Gold, recommended at $875, rose throughout the year. As I write it is at $1,100, up around 26%. I gave three stock tips; Sportingbet are up 140%, Phorm are up …

It’s a general philosophy of mine that you don’t look back in life – you only look forward. I used to be good at doing this, but with four small children now it’s difficult not to become nostalgic occasionally. As I lay in bed this morning I had one of those memory moments when I thought back to my early …