Key events
Jockey Gavin Sheehan, who won the first race at Chepstow on Julius Des Picton, told At The Races presenter Hayley Moore about riding out on the track: “It’s not ideal … you can’t see the hurdles until you are close to them!” An inspection is being held now to see if racing can go ahead.
Chepstow inspect for Welsh National meeting
This just in … Chesptow have called an inspection owing to thick fog at the track!
Good morning. Loved the title of the opening race of the day at Leopardstown … the Paddy Power I Have No Idea What Day It Is Maiden Hurdle. Seems very appropriate. I much prefer when Christmas Day is on a Sunday (the day people traditionally don’t do much and ha a roast dinner) – you know where you are then. Shopping on Saturday (Christmas Eve) and sport on a Monday (Boxing Day) followed by life getting somewhere back to normal. But the horror is that the next Sunday Christmas Day is not until 2033!
Anyway, back from existential dread to the action. What was perhaps most interesting about that Leopardstown race is another defeat for a Willie Mullins runner who wasn’t sighted after hardly being well supported in the betting. Chris Cook wrote in his email to Racing Post subscribers this morning that Mulllins hardly had a great day yesterday and mused: “There might be individual reasons for those disappointments, some of which will become clear over time. It doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong at Closutton. But it’s something to fret about as Mullins approaches one of the busiest days of his year.”
One to watch as the day goes on ….
Preamble
Greg Wood
Good morning from Kempton Park ahead of another day of outstanding festive racing action both here and in south Wales, where 15 runners are due to go to post for the Coral Welsh Grand National, the most valuable event of the Welsh racing year.
It was a foggy start to the day in Wales, but conditions have steadily improved ahead of the first race at 12pm, and the action in the market for the big race has been livening up too. Monbeg Genius, formerly the property of controversial couple Doug Barrowman and Michelle Mone, was favourite yesterday morning but has been friendless in the betting and is out to 9-1, and there are now no fewer than four horses – Atlanta Brave, Jubilee Express, Iron Bridge and Evies Vladimir – vying for favouritism at odds of around 7-1.
Here at Kempton meanwhile, the big attraction is a head-to-head between two of the most exciting novice chase prospects around, Sir Gino and Ballyburn, in the Grade Two Wayward Lad Novice Chase at 1.55. Sir Gino, who is still just four years old, switches to fences after successfully deputising for his stable companion, Constitution Hill, in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle last month, and remains unbeaten after five starts over hurdles, while Willie Mullins’s Ballybur has just one defeat on his record and, unlike Sir Gino, a Cheltenham Festival win to his name in the two-and-a-half mile novice hurdle back in March.
There are some big names in action in Ireland too – Gaelic Warrior, last year’s Arkle Trophy winner, makes his seasonal debut there in a Grade One at 1.10 – and you can follow all the action, wherever it might be, here on the live blog as the day unfolds.
