Good snow

Well, you'll have seen that Ex Con's debut did sneak in by the skin of its teeth. As we were driving down to Fontwell on Sunday I'd have bet odds against the bumper taking place, because we drove through some really heavy snow falls on the M23 around Gatwick. Happily, however, Fontwell received merely snow flurries through the afternoon, so Ex Con's very unspectacular debut did at last take place. He was made to look woefully slow, but he did at least plug on and, to my ever-optimistic eyes, did enough to say that he can make the grade at some level where stamina is more important than speed, as long as he stays sound and progresses, of course - and as he appears to have come out the race in A1 condition, we can now press on with the job of helping him to find his metier. We'll give him a run in another bumper before too long and then work out when to start his jumping career.

It was good finally to get Ex Con on the track, and particularly so in retrospect, with winter having really set in within hours of his race having taken place. Our journey home was tricky as we found ourselves driving slowly home through blizzards on surprisingly busy roads, but poor Tim and Hugh had an ever worse trip: they probably left Fontwell less than half an hour after we did, but they got back a good two hours after us - and I suspect that, had they left much later than that, they would have struggled to get home at all. The weather really closed in, with Monday producing the best snow I've ever seen in Newmarket. It snowed all day, which was rather spectacular, with a different hazard then appearing for yesterday and today in the form of packed ice on the roads and on Heath's walking grounds. And particularly in the stable yard. Training horses this week has very much been a case of adapting to the conditions, but happily it's been feasible to exercise the horses once one can get them to the Heath, which is good - and getting them to the Heath has been considerably easier than might have been the case thanks to some sterling work by the Heathmen in gritting the roads.

But, all in all, there's something rather fun about snow. It makes for some spectacular views and, for all that it has its down sides, there's definitely no harm in some snow once in a while. Mind you, I might not be saying that if it lasts for too long, and we're told that there is more on the way tonight ...