Sand...but no Sun or Sangria

by Hayley 

A determind Rosina winning at Newcastle - photo by Grossick Photography

As expected, we waved goodbye to another jump meeting today thanks to the vast amount of rain we endured over the past couple of days. Only a few years ago a whole month of jump meetings were forced into abandonment. Luckily, as a flat yard (with the odd hurdle runner), abandoned meetings isn't something we have to really worry about. With temperatures set to hit a high of 3° tomorrow, one can't help but dream of warmer months... long, sunny days, barbecues, and cold glasses of wine in the garden, but sadly it isn't shorts and t-shirt weather yet! The Newcastle all-weather has proven to be very handy for us so far. We've enjoyed five winners and a further eighteen placed efforts there in the last year and with it being fairly local to us by comparison to the other all-weather tracks; Southwell, Lingfield, Kempton and Chelmsford, we will continue to try and capatalise on the northern facility throughout the winter. Should Sunday's jump meeting survive at Newcastle (an inspection is already scheduled), the National Hunt flat race, or 'bumper' as it is commonly known, will be the first to be staged on the Tapeta surface. It will be interesting to watch, though it will look a good deal slower than the flat racing we are used to watching there! 

No runners for us over the weekend - music to the ears for Dale and Aslam, who have both clocked up some miles and worked a few late nights at the races recently.