A stormy weekend

This is terribly dull, not having Cheltenham to watch on television this afternoon. We've been having some proper winter weather for a while, and some days this week were very cold with hard frosts, which can actually be quite nice if accompanied by clear skies. Frost was shaping as quite a worry for a while, but when the wet but less cold weather started to come in, I'd assume that Cheltenham would be safe, because who had ever heard of Cheltenham being waterlogged? However, that sadly is what has happened after a really rough night and day. I had really been looking forward to following a cold, wet and windy morning's work with a good afternoon's viewing. Saturday afternoons, particularly during the height of the National Hunt season, are pretty much sacrosanct, and one spends so long anticipating the racing that it's a terrible anti-climax if and when the racing doesn't take place. There is, of course, still Doncaster and Southwell to watch, but that's not quite the same, notwithstanding that I watched an interesting maiden at Southwell earlier which was won by a Cape Cross half-brother to Attraction and that I've just watched a thrilling finish to a handicap hurdle at Doncaster in which two very good jockeys, Dominic Elsworth and Dougie Costello, treated viewers to a splendid duel, the former winning for Lucy Wadham. We might have been represented at Doncaster today as there had been a suggestion that it might be wise to run Take Me There, but when I saw the weather forecast it was pretty easy to advise aborting that plan - and seeing the ground, which was still given as 'good, good to soft in places' in the morning paper but which now looks close to heavy, this afternoon makes me very glad that that view prevailed. Instead Filemot on Monday will be our next runner now (at Wolverhampton), with Take Me There, the hope of getting dry ground for him over jumps looking ever more forlorn, likely to make his Flat debut at Southwell on Thursday.

It would be great if we could keep our good run going, not least because it is not just our good run, but a communal good run of several of the stables around us. Jonathan Jay at the bottom of the street has his horses going really well, which is nice as his is a good, friendly yard in which Jonathan and his head lad Nigel Walker make a really good team, working hard and, I'm pleased to say, getting success. Don Cantillon across the way continues to send out winners, while another stable which I like to see enjoy success, that of James Eustace, has been going really well too. James had the close-up third in Kadouchski's race at Sandown, Karky Schultz, and that little horse, who is only a three-year-old and who led over the last hurdle that day, must surely be a horse with a nice future; as is a two-year-old winner James had this week, Geneva Geyser.

On the subject of Kadouchski, one thought that has been going around in my head over the past week is that, when I listed all the factors which made his win so special, I omitted one nice little bonus, which was that the post-race presentation was made by our friend George Primarolo, on behalf of the sponsors Blue Square bookmakers. Blue Square are generous sponsors in racing, not least by supporting the HWPA's Derby Awards lunch, which they have done for several years, and George has been their public relations man for a while, although he is shortly to move on to the Tote. Kadouchski seems to have not a care in the world just now, which is lovely, but whether he will be able to complete a hat-trick - the plan is for him to attempt to do so at Leicester on the Sunday after Christmas - has to be considered very doubtful as he will be racing off a mark a further 8lb higher (ie 112) next time. But he's such a brave little horse that, even if the task is beyond him, I'm sure he'll still run well.