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Plus 6 and dry when driving in.

Lizzie Wills, Benoit and Bridget Guerin were here second lot. The Guerin's are staying with Lizzie and were visiting Thorndale for the first time

Headlines of todays Racing Post .. Easterby blasts BHA over new ruling on shoeing.

Click here to read what he said, but the crux of it is that the BHA are from February 1st banning any horse from running without a set of hind shoes.

Personally I very rarely run a horse without steel hind shoes, but I totally understand where Mick is coming from in this case as injuries from hind shoes although not that common thankfully, but when they do occur they are not easy ones to repair.

I don’t recall being asked by the BHA, or any of its PR companies that seem to send out questionnaires about my thoughts on this matter, and it looks like Mick says the same.

The BHA continually says welfare is the prime concern, but not in this case.

Trainers should have the option not to shoe their horses behind; lets face it we are supposed to know what we are doing! 

Flat racing where you have to run horses in hind shoes is a very different sport to jump racing..

I fear the movers and shakers in the BHA are probably all from non racing back grounds and most have not been in a stable, let alone worked with horses, and certainly not in a racing environment.

On that rather unhappy note we don’t have any runners today. We are back in action tomorrow.

The late Tommy Cooper had the odd one liner on shoes..

My wife complained that her feet hurt. I said: “You’ve got your shoes on the wrong feet.” She said: “But these are the only feet I’ve got.”

I saw an old tramp walking down the street wearing one shoe. I said: “Hey, you lost your shoe.” He said: “No I found one.”

These shoes are killing me. They are so tight my big toe and my little toe are now going steady.

Have you an entry in my in house Five to follow? If so then you have a chance to change two horses and to do so please click here.. A great chance to win an special weekend trip to The Frogmill.

To finish...Planning a weekend in the Cotswolds? Then please put the weekend of the 26/27 of this month in your diaries and make it a true racing weekend.

Cheltenham Festival Trials day at Cheltenham on Januray 26th and then the following day come to Cocklebarrow Races.. This is where our great sport all began... Come and see the stars of the future and have a fun day out... It is a must do trip..And a seriously fun day out for the family..