What a difference a day makes

What a difference a day makes! Today it didn't rain. It wasn't cold (relatively speaking). And there was no wind. So we had none of the hard frosts we had earlier in the week, we had none of the terrible winds which took a few slates off the roof on Friday night, and we had none of the severe rain which has left us squelching about in mud and puddles all over the property. So, as long as one didn't look down, today was really nice. (Or as long as one didn't look up, as the low cloud cover was unbroken, notwithstanding the fact that it yielded no rain). And what was also nice was that we went to buy our Christmas tree at La Hogue, the excellent local farm shop outside Chippenham. Henry Cecil and Micky Fenton were doing likewise, so we were in good company. La Hogue is a really good shop, and collecting the tree from there means Christmas is nigh. It was very funny when we got home because the dogs looked at the tree with mild interest, as if to say, "Ah, a Christmas tree" - but kitten Natagora looked at it with wild-eyed excitement, as if to say, "You bewdy, a climbing frame". Still, if it means that she spends less time climbing the curtains, perhaps that's not a bad thing.

Riding out was rather pleasant this morning, in the absence of cold, wet or windy conditions. I only rode one horse - tomorrow's runner Filemot, who gave me another very enjoyable ride - and, during that exercise, one of the few other riders in view brought a stab of conscience to my mind, as I remembered that John Ryan's name was a notable omission from yesterday's list of trainers whom I've been pleased to see do well recently. John has had a couple of winners over the past fortnight, his most recent scorer being a nice son of Pivotal who won a two-year-old maiden at Kempton last week. I really enjoyed watching that success as it was good to see a couple of battlers - John plus jockey Jerry O'Dwyer - win a decent race with what looks a nice horse. And it came in the middle of a particularly entertaining programme in which Nick Luck (Jumps Icon Number 8, not to be confused with Alex Steedman, Jumps Icon Number 19, as today's Racing Post reminds us) and James Willoughby went off on their various tangents. There may be 16,000 channels on the TV to chose from nowadays, but when that pair of them are on duty on Racing UK, only a maximum of 15,999 of them are s**t.