-
Weather causes carnage but Nicholls yard is well-prepared
-
Keeping big weekend meetings on is most important
-
Paul sends strong team to Kempton on Saturday
The big freeze has caused carnage to the racing calendar since the start of the year, it's been a nightmare, especially with the frost as the roads are very icy and we have to sort those out ourselves, but we've dealt with it.
The gallops have been fine so we've missed no work with any of our horses, but obviously the racetracks have had a challenging time getting racing on. Thankfully, Taunton was on Thursday and Exeter is on Friday, and it looks like Kempton will be okay for Saturday with a bit of luck, and possibly Warwick also so it's all systems go.
But in terms of long-term plans for horses, if you miss big races because meetings are cancelled it's a disaster, but if it's just an ordinary novice hurdle or a handicap you can pick your opportunities and go another time.
Thankfully we haven't had too many meetings off, you wouldn't want to see weeks, a couple of weeks at a time, where meetings are regularly cancelled as that would be a disaster. But at the moment if we can get these big Saturday meetings on, places like Sandown, Naas, Kempton, you need these meetings to go ahead.
Strong team heads to Kempton on Saturday
Luckily I don't think in the time I've been training there have been any really bad winters, it's always a time when you might miss a week or two with frost and things like that, but it's never much more than that.
This season has been a challenging one, at the start we had unusual quick ground and now for some racetracks it's unraceable because of the cold snap so it's been difficult for everyone. But it's always a challenge, you just have to know your tracks, select where you run your horses, make sure you run them on the right going. For example, on Friday I took a couple out of Exeter, one was lame and the other was because of the ground, so you've just got to be a bit careful.
So fingers crossed we do get some racing on this weekend as we've got a really strong team going to Kempton on Saturday as well as a few at Warwick.
Racing... Only Bettor. Listen to the latest episode now.