A look ahead

The weeks are beginning to fly by this year and we are now only 4 weeks from the start of the flat season on 31st March 2012. British summer time itself begins on the 25th March when the clocks go forward 1 hour giving us that welcome extra hour of light in the evening.

The 2012 Horses in Training was published this week and it shows that Richard Hannon will have a total of 271 horses in his yard this season compared with 149 in 2005. It makes you wonder sometimes just how some of the horses arent forgotten in the pile. Sir Henry Cecil is really back on the way up with his figures and he has a total of 157 to go to war with in 2012 compared to just 55 in 2006. William Haggas too is creeping up the ladder with 130 for this season compared with 70 in 2003.

I will be taking a keen interst in the Racing Post Yearling Bonus scheme this season with shares in two 2 year olds with Middleham Park Racing, and with early indications showing that both look to be above average it could be a good summer - there are a few shares still available.

Dont foget, to get reading through, the Horses to Follow lists that I have compiled which can be reached via the adjacent links and you can see which horse goes better when she is drawn up against the rail on her left and which 2yo from last season was only 0.2 secs slower over the Longchamp 5f than the time set by the winner in the Abbaye.

Moving onto Cheltenham and you would be foolish not to pay a visit to Wayward Lad's blog (see adjacent link) who is in excellent tipping form as the festival week approaches having had 2 big winners in the last few days at odds of 10/1 and 16/1.
He has a Cheltenham Bulletin that you can purchase for a small donation and its well worth a read.

Oh last but not least I will be once again attending my local Cheltenham Preview Evening in Maghull this year which is on Monday night and hopefully it will run smoother than last year at the same venue, do you remember what happened, here's a reminder.

Well the Town Hall certainly lived up to a venue befitting that name as when the PA System was turned on to commence proceedings we had to endure "Push and push, step forward and back" the PA system had somehow got mixed up with the downstairs aerobics class ! .....and we had the delights of the panel doing their Mr Motivator routines to the repetitive thumping beat. That was funny for the first 5 minutes but 30 minutes later the joke had well and truly worn a bit thin and someone was despatched to try and pull the plug...... literally !. Unfortunately the bloke that went wasnt quite man enough as we heard him being kicked out of the room, over the PA, by the burly keep fit woman Instructor !!

I will of course publish the results of what happens on Tuesday evening.