RACING will be the envy of the sporting world on Monday when it makes its long-awaited return at Newcastle.
Football, rugby and cricket are all working hard to make their own comebacks, but for a couple of weeks at least, racing will have its own window of opportunity.
Newcastle might not be Ascot, Longchamp or Santa Anita, but trainers desperate to get their businesses off the ground won’t care one bit.
A staggering 369 entries were made for Monday by race-thirsty connections, with 197 left disappointed after Friday’s declarations.
And while a few missed out and were made to wait, Yorkshire trainer Roger Fell was chuffed as seven of his string will make the trip to Gosforth Park. From just a team of 40 that’s not bad going.
It was nearly even better, and he couldn’t help but laugh when he realised he’d have the joint-most runners on the day.
He told Sun Racing: “We nearly had eight, one just missed out! That would have had us above Richard Fahey.
“We made a load of entries as everyone did, just looking to get as many in as we could that were ready to come back.
“And as we’re more of a handicapping yard we knew we’d get a few in as they were towards the top of the weights.
“To get seven is good though, let’s just hope we can get a winner!
“The team have all been working hard here through tricky times.
“Even though we’re out in the middle of nowhere it’s been quite strange, so we’re all excited to be back that’s for sure.”
Strict guidelines have been put in place by the BHA with a close eye sure to be kept on a behind closed doors return by the government.
Fell has been impressed with the BHA’s handling of the pressure and has felt like a schoolboy again with all the tests and questionnaires his team have been sent.
He said: “I’ll definitely be heading across, it’s interesting how the BHA have sorted it all to be fair to them.
“They’ve emailed us all over the tests and bits to do first and all the stable staff have had to register.
“Normally we just tell ‘em who’ll be riding the thing but now we have to register all our staff attending, and all by 1pm on the day of declarations!
“It’s impressive to be fair to the BHA, they seem to have sorted all this and thought of everything.”
All weather racing is not everyone’s cup of tea and the BHA faced some flak when their re-arranged fixture list was released.
The first three meetings are all on an artificial surface, but Fell thinks it may even be a blessing in disguise.
He said: “There was a bit of moaning at the start about racing coming back on the all weather – but it’s worked out well.
“It’s safe to go to Newcastle at the moment, had it been normal times the field sizes would be tiny at the moment with the ground being so quick.
“I’ve got one in at Newmarket but I’ve got a good few more hopefully at Newcastle later in the week.
“It’s a good place to go with horses and the hotter it is, the slower the track is there. But a lot of the turf tracks and especially Haydock will have very quick ground at the moment.
“They’ll all be watering but it’s going to be drying out as quick as they’re putting it on!”
Of his seven runners, his best chance comes in the opener where he runs three. Al Ozzdi, Zodiakos and My Boy Lewis all line up, while new recruit and the 94-rated Anythingtoday has landed a slot in the feature at 5.05.
He said: “I think as we’ve got three in the first that’d be our best chance of a winner, but I’m definitely not just taking any there that would have no chance whatsoever.
“We can tend to improve horses here so hopefully Anythingtoday will do that.
“He’s going okay at home but it’s early days with him in our hands.
“He’s owned by Kevin Bailey and has come from David O’Meara, hopefully he’ll go well as they’ll carry on supporting us.
“I’ve got Ben Curtis riding who is great at Newcastle, Calum Rodriguez booked too. Plus Jimmy Sullivan who lives with us on site so it’s always good to give him the leg up.”
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