It’s a strange and sad day for me as I write my blog today. There’s been a regular feature of my Saturday mornings for as long as I can remember – my Uncle Terry calls at around ten thirty and we go through the card. Two weeks ago he died of cancer – his funeral was on Wednesday. He was …

A quick one today; Wolf Slayer runs in the 5:00 at Lingfield. She is up against an odds on fav trained by Ralph Beckett – he may well be too good for us, but Wolfie should run a good race today and is a price – I’ll be backing her. Sunday Bess runs in a maiden at Hamilton tomorrow – …

I’ve had a fair few 2yo runners this year, but all of them have been horses that Tom D bought intending to sell on and I ended up keeping a piece, or in the case of Van Go Go a home bred. I bought three yearlings at the sales last year – two fillies and a colt. The fillies (Nayef …

Nothing is quite going right at the moment. Tom didn’t go to Sandown for Bear Behind’s race, but he instructed Ryan Moore to go steady until the 3f pole and wind him up from there. Moore broke perfectly and rode to instruction – unfortunately by the time the 3f pole came he was 3 lengths behind and the race was …

AAARGH !! Yet again one of my horses is beaten after trading extremely short in-running. Electric Qatar, the great brown hope of the stables 2yos folded dramatically in the final yards having pulled hard early in his race. He’ll get 6 furlongs when he learns to settle, but for now it probably makes more sense to drop him back to …

My children are very innocent, and it can be a joy. Maddy, my 11 year old daughter, is forever writing little stories about girls around the world. A few weeks back she walked in while Jane and I were watching tv; Maddy : Dad – I’m writing a story about a girl in the Amazon. Should I call her Minge …

A tough day yesterday with no winners. Switcher was just edged out of the places, which was a blow. I had my biggest bet of the day on the wrong French horse in the Coronation Stakes, which was annoying. All in all a poor day for the finances. Today is a big day for a friend of mine called DOR …

Another amazing day yesterday – almost a carbon copy of day 2 but with the added bonus of the winning horse being owned and bred by Michael. I imagine Brown Panther could go on from this and compete at a very high level, particularly if he gets the right conditions. For me it was another day when I looked into …

A great day yesterday with Manor House scoring its first win at Royal Ascot – Rhythm of Light won extremely well under a confident ride. I hope it’s the first of many. It saved my days betting – I was on course for one of my worst days ever having bet (and lost) heavily on every race bar the Prince …

I had a good day out yesterday and there was a lot to talk about. The controversy started early with Olivier Peslier putting up 2lb overweight in the Queen Anne. It’s slightly surprising as he carried 8-11 four times and 8-10 once on Sunday and Monday – either he was at the pies in a big way on Monday night …