Happy New Year

And a happy New Year to one and all. I'm pleased to say that I didn't fall into the 'seeing the New Year in' trap. I've never worked out what the deal is about staying up so that one can say that one was awake when a new year started - why not do that every day so that one can say that one was awake when yet another arbitrary sequence of 365 consecutive days started? - and I'm pleased to say that, having retired to bed later than usual at 11 pm and read a few pages of 'A Most Wanted Man', I was sound asleep as 2008 ended and 2009 began. Others I know were not so fortunate (not mentioning any names, Aisling, Gemma, Hugh or Martha). It's no good getting older if you don't get wiser!

But a good end-of-year tradition is to pay tribute to the stars of the year just ended. As outlined yesterday, Chris Dwyer gets my vote for trainer of the year. William Kennedy, naturally, gets my vote for jockey of the year, but highly commended rosettes have to go out to Hayley Turner, George Baker and Tom Queally, all of whom enjoyed cracking campaigns and hit their maiden centuries. Hayley's feat has already been well praised, but George's is no less admirable: for a guy who can't ride much below nine stone (and even riding at nine stone is amazing for someone of his height, which is virtually my height) to ride 100 winners in a year tells one all one needs to know about his calibre.

Leading the field at this very early stage in 'Hero of 2009' has to be lovely Lough Derg, who put up yet another freakishly brave performance to win at Cheltenham today. One can see why Tom Scudamore loves him so much. I think that if the race were run again, Tony McCoy wouldn't send Franchoek past Lough Derg so prematurely and Lough Derg consequently wouldn't win, but as today's race unfolded win he did, giving us a wonderfully thrilling way to start 2009. Let's hope we're in for a year of similarly inspiring sport all the way through.