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Plus 3 and dry when driving in.

End of season staff party last night. To celebrate such a good season.. Drinks and music in The Royal Oak in Andoversford.

Disco Dave (Bass) was on hand, but the music was a one man band and no drums, so our Dave was unable to show off his drumming skills.. Anyway my team were well looked after and had a fun.. and long night..

Station Master was our only runner at Uttoxeter on Saturday.

I walked the course and although the new clerk of the course Eloise Quayle and her team had done a good job .. they had no rain last week unlike us.. I felt their ground it was too fast for my winter horses who needed winter good ground not the summer good ground that was on offer. Hence I did not run Masteen, Silver Kayf or First Flow.

Ground descriptions are becoming very confusing for the layman to understand.. the word ‘good’ as described by clerks of the course nowadays might not be as 'good' as you might think...

Racecourses hate using the words ‘good to firm’ as it deceases the number of horses declared by trainers, so over the years they have stretched the truth and come up with ‘winter good’ and ‘summer good’.. but still call it ‘good’.... very different descriptions…..

Then there is ‘Flat good’ and ‘Jumping good’..

Basically owners should not read the going descriptions..

Just to make matters worse racecourses use a thing called a ‘going stick’.. This going stick reads the ground conditions and reports back a number.. That number is translated into figures and those figures tell you how good the ground is. 10 for hard and 0 to bottomless. Uttoxeter on Saturday was 8.2.. another confusing mess..

Weekend results..Aiden O’Brien another Guineas double.. The man is a genius..

Debbie Hanson and daughter Tina were here for a second visit.. they were here for breakfast last week..

We have one runner today on good ground at Warwick.. Royal Supremo runs there and for my thoughts please click here.

Much missed Tommy Cooper... I backed a horse last week at ten to one. It came in at quarter past four.    

Do click here to see some amazing trees..