HAPPY New Year all – heres to a good 2020 for you and yours!
As a jumps jockey, all your hopes and dreams are still intact at this time of year.
And my big dream for the rest of the season is still thatAl Dancercan take us to the top in the Arkle.
It was obviously disappointing to get beat in the Wayward Lad at Kempton the other day, but we have had some time to reflect and there were positives to take out of the race.
He was giving weight to some smart horses, they ran an exceptional time and he would be much happier over a stiff 2m Kempton was not his track. Dont write him off.
Talking of the Cheltenham Festival, there has been some talk of the meeting being extended to five days. My personal view is that the current set up caters perfectly for everyone.
Its when we get the best of the best from Britain and Ireland taking each other on, and it makes for four top-class days of sport.
I think adding an extra day would be wrong we are talking about the pinnacle of the sport and you would have to create several new races to extend it into an extra day.
The addition of more races would dilute what we already have and weaken a lot of the races we love. Sometimes less is more.
They will also announce this year which race is being replaced with a Mares Chase from 2021 onwards.
The amateur races are an important part of our sport – its in National Hunts DNA.
Without them there would be no point-to-point racing, the amateur role is a very important one and these guys and gals deserve their shot at Cheltenham success.
There is no obvious race to cut and whichever one is lost will be a disappointment, but I hope they keep all the amateur races.
Back to business and Im at Wincanton for four rides today. Jamie Bargary was exceptionally good when winning onDino Boy(1.05) at Wetherby last time.
Hes a progressive horse, he stays well and hes a good jumper so fingers crossed we can get him into a good rhythm and he will run a big race.
Galileo Silver(1.35) is a very interesting horse. Hes having his first run for us and he was a decent enough horse on the Flat.
We are stepping him up in trip because he is quite lazy in his work and he was a little slow over his hurdles over 2m at Ascot, so weve schooled him plenty. Hes tricky but has plenty of potential.
Rootless Tree(2.40) won nicely enough in a decent little race at Leicester last time. We think hes on a decent enough mark going handicapping and this step up in trip will suit him.
I also get the leg up onManvers House(3.50) in the last for Robert Walford. Ive never ridden him before but it looks a nice spot for him so hopefully he can get the job done.
