1st April 2016

Pinnacle Panda and Apergillum worked on the woodchip, many others cantered 3 miles on the sand. Furiously Fast, Very Intense, Bogarius and Polydora schooled.

Hagstone and very Intense will head to Carlisle on Sunday. Very Intense will be having his first run over fences. I hope the fences bring the best out of him, he’s fresh, well and jumps very well. Hagstone is in the bumper.

I know people give of their time, effort and more often than not their own money in order to promote point to pointing to a wider audience and those already involved in the sport - I for one appreciate it. However, Nick Rust has outlined some very ambitious targets involving increasing the numbers of horses in training. It was suggested that one pool he would target to increase these numbers would be the point to point field. In the UK many horses running in the point to points are those who have either had a successful campaign under rules or not been good enough to compete in that sphere. The young horses coming through the point to point field in the UK are a small number. Although, those numbers are slowly increasing. The race planning committee that was put together to introduce some positive changes to point to pointing have made a fundamental error in allowing the increasing of weights for 5 year olds after the 1^st of March. Most, if not all 5-year-olds were too weak to run at 4 and now they have effectively handicapped 5-year-old out of races. I am disappointed that the change was approved by the PPA and the BHA. It is unconceivable that those we put our trust in have even considered it. It is a total shocker and they, the race planning committee should have known better. I am flabbergasted that it was even considered let alone implemented. The gulf between a 5-year-old and a 6-year-old is vast, ask any trainer. 5 and 6 year olds are now expected to compete on level terms after 1^st March. Not only will a 6-year-old be considerably stronger, it will, for a number of reasons be a lot easier to train. To start with, 6 year olds will have potentially experienced 2 years in training. I hope the race planning committee are big enough to admit their mistake and see that the 5 year olds get their 7lb allowance reinstated for the full year. I know 5 and 6 year olds compete on level terms under rules but there are many more preambles to throw into the mix in that field.

It is Sholto's birthday today and I've now to play rugby before birthday tea.