We're off to the races tomorrow (Friday). Karma Chameleon (pictured keeping himself on the move during the freeze-up) will try to make it five in a row, but it looks a worryingly competitive race. He's still very well and only 4lb higher than when he last won, but there look to be several very tough nuts to crack in tomorrow's race. He will surely go out and run another highly creditable race, but whether he can win will be another matter. Let's hope he can - but it won't be a disgrace if he can't. We'll see. It'll just be nice to have a runner, with Alcalde, Dr Darcey and Douchkirk all having had their recent engagements frozen/snowed off. Frankie (Douchkirk) might be able to have an outing on Saturday: I'll declare him for a race at Wincanton and, if the race is divided, he'd have a reasonable chance of getting in. If it isn't divided, he'd have virtually no chance of getting in, but it looks as if it will be divided, which generally doesn't happen in jumps races at this time of year, but is happening at present to try to whittle away the backlog of novice hurdlers waiting for a run after so much racing was lost to the weather.Aside from that, I ought just to salute a few more recent winners. Pride of place, of course, must go to the 11-year-old Dvinsky, formerly of this parish and currently a veteran of 201 starts. Dvinsky, as you'll have noticed, got quite a 
lot of publicity when he made his 200th racecourse appearance in the middle of last week. Of course the fairytale victory didn't happen - but his fans didn't have to wait long before seeing him back in the winner's enclosure as he won three days later at 25/1, beating the horse who had won his race midweek. Dvinsky must have spent quite a long time here as he's trained by Paul Howling, who only moved away a few months ago back down south (in which part of the world he had started out, but whence he had moved a decade or two ago to come to Newmarket, initially to a small, no-longer-existent, yard on Moulton Paddocks). I didn't know Dvinsky when he was here as the only horse from that stable I could recognise was the lovely white mare Our Kes, but Dvinsky certainly deserves to be recognised. His current statistics are 201-18-30-32, and records don't come much more imposing than that. It was interesting that, when he didn't win on his 200th start, his jockey Tom McLaughlin
(pictured, on the left of shot, braving the -14 frozen tundra on the Severals last Saturday morning on one of Ed Dunlop's horses, prior to heading off to ride Dvinsky at Kempton) had opined that he might have won had he been in the first division, which was run at a less frantic pace which would have suited the horse. It was tempting to think that, as Dvinsky hadn't run particularly well, Tom was just saying nice things about the horse - but Tom's nobody's fool, and if he said that, then that was a valid comment, as was reinforced by the horse's 25/1 victory in a less fiercely run race three days later. Tom is a much, much better jockey than his profile would suggest, and this is just one illustration of that fact. Another very good local jockey is Martin Lane, whose talents seem to be becoming more widely recognised this winter, which is good. Martin (pictured on First Pressing on a wet, miserable August afternoon at Chepstow last 'summer') seems to be riding for a broad spectrum of trainers now, and riding winners for plenty of them, and that's nice to see: he's a thoroughly diligent, professional and hard-working jockey as well as a very good one, and any success which he achieves is richly deserved.
lot of publicity when he made his 200th racecourse appearance in the middle of last week. Of course the fairytale victory didn't happen - but his fans didn't have to wait long before seeing him back in the winner's enclosure as he won three days later at 25/1, beating the horse who had won his race midweek. Dvinsky must have spent quite a long time here as he's trained by Paul Howling, who only moved away a few months ago back down south (in which part of the world he had started out, but whence he had moved a decade or two ago to come to Newmarket, initially to a small, no-longer-existent, yard on Moulton Paddocks). I didn't know Dvinsky when he was here as the only horse from that stable I could recognise was the lovely white mare Our Kes, but Dvinsky certainly deserves to be recognised. His current statistics are 201-18-30-32, and records don't come much more imposing than that. It was interesting that, when he didn't win on his 200th start, his jockey Tom McLaughlin
(pictured, on the left of shot, braving the -14 frozen tundra on the Severals last Saturday morning on one of Ed Dunlop's horses, prior to heading off to ride Dvinsky at Kempton) had opined that he might have won had he been in the first division, which was run at a less frantic pace which would have suited the horse. It was tempting to think that, as Dvinsky hadn't run particularly well, Tom was just saying nice things about the horse - but Tom's nobody's fool, and if he said that, then that was a valid comment, as was reinforced by the horse's 25/1 victory in a less fiercely run race three days later. Tom is a much, much better jockey than his profile would suggest, and this is just one illustration of that fact. Another very good local jockey is Martin Lane, whose talents seem to be becoming more widely recognised this winter, which is good. Martin (pictured on First Pressing on a wet, miserable August afternoon at Chepstow last 'summer') seems to be riding for a broad spectrum of trainers now, and riding winners for plenty of them, and that's nice to see: he's a thoroughly diligent, professional and hard-working jockey as well as a very good one, and any success which he achieves is richly deserved.
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