THE WEATHER
Being a racehorse trainer involves spending an alarming amount of time on the Met Office weather app, it gets to the point where it must be bordering on self torture. The night before Carlisle last week I was awake at 3am listening to the howling gale outside and found myself looking at wind speeds for the following day trying to decide f it would be safe to take the lorry to Carlisle. Ridiculously this is the normal. Anyway the wind abated and we made it.So many fixtures have been lost over the last couple of weeks it starts to become a little soul destroying. Our staff are all amazing and through hail, rain, snow and gale force winds our horses have never missed a day, but when the horses intended races come up and are inevitably abandoned it makes riding out in such grim weather just that bit worse. We were planning to be at Corebridge points today and Carlisle tomorrow but neither fixture was ever likely to survive. That’s Your Lottie has been in 3 abandoned races now but hopefully we will get her out soon.Another big frustration for us over the last month is the awkward mark that Rockley Point has landed on, 51, I now hate that number. First to be balloted out of 0-50, and unlikely to get a run in higher grade races we have been balloted out several times and although I’ve entered him twice for this Friday I would say the same fate is inevitable. Very frustrating. He likes us to know when he is well, by some appalling behaviour and riding him out when he is simmering on the boil is less than fun, I’ve tasted dirt once and Hayley has had a few near misses as well. It’s great to know he’s on form but it’s hopeless if we can’t get a race.On a positive note our unraced stock are all progressing well. Our Fame and Glory filly ‘Monchiques Lass’ is gearing up for a bumper debut and our 2yo’s Linda and Dracula are learning every day. At least we know they will cope with wind and rain on race day as they are well used to it now.Weather warnings in place for snow this week so things not looking all that better. Roll on some sunshine.