Let's see what tomorrow brings

Two runners tomorrow, which is exciting. Kadouchski at Kempton on the Flat and Dr Darcey at Southwell over hurdles. Dr Darcey hasn't been running well, but one would have hoped that a 5-runner claimer would be a fair bit weaker than the competitive handicaps which he has contested the last two times. However, study of the field reveals that that might not be the case (other than numerically) so we shall have to see how we go. Kadou ought to have a decent chance on the basis that he is very well and won the race last year. However, I'd imagine that his rating is at least 10lb higher than it was 12 months ago, and I'd say that tomorrow's race might be a bit more competitive than was the 2011 edition. So again we shall just have to hope for the best. His rise in the weights will be partially offset by Hannah's 7-lb claim, and he's always run well when she's ridden him in the past. She and Hugh can head down to Kempton with him, while Terri and I shall go to Southwell. So let's hope that we all have an incident-free, enjoyable and worthwhile day. Both horses are certainly well - let's hope that they both feel as perky as they were when these two photographs were taken on an unseasonably warm day in late February, with Kadou and Karma Chameleon doing some synchronised rolling, while the Dr kept an eye on them.

I didn't see much racing yesterday afternoon, which was no bad thing as I'd watched plenty while Cheltenham was on. However, I did see one hurdle race at Uttoxeter which was quite encouraging. Common consensus is that, while we are told that protocol was correctly followed in the dolling off of the last fence in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, such protocol didn't work very well and should be reviewed. Hats off to the BHA, therefore, because yesterday's race at Uttoxeter (only three days after the Champion Chase) suggests that the review has already taken place. The problems at Cheltenham were that the boards which boarded off the fence were all clustered together in the corner rather than spread across the fence in a more eye-catching manner, and that the flagman was not allowed onto the track (for fear of his being hit by a loose horse, so we were told) so had to stay right up against the rail, and therefore again was not nearly as eye-catching to the jockeys as he ought to be. Anyway, it looked on TV that at Uttoxeter the boards were spread out evenly across the hurdle, and that there was a man walking around right in front of the middle of the jump. That's clearly a much better way of doing things, and it's good to know that the chances of the Cheltenham debacle (which saw Barry Geraghty trying to push Andrew Lynch's mount Sizing Europe towards the cordoned off fence, simply because he didn't realise that the fence was cordoned off) being repeated have been hugely lessened. Incidentally, I've been thinking about the thing of not having a flagman out on the track in case he were to be hit by a loose horse; this line of thinking is clearly nonsense, as its logical extension is that no loose horse would ever be caught!