Lets hope the weather relents and racing can take place on Boxing Day where the feature race will be the William Hill King George VI Chase worth £200,000 run over 3 miles. Kauto Star should win it for a fourth time but there will not be much between him and Imperial Commander judged on their Haydock Park form. Madison du Berlais was behind them that day but he has excellent form over course and distance and could well be in the shake up.

It was a shame to lose the Ascot cards to the weather. The highlight on Saturday would undoubtedly have been the Long Walk Hurdle where the top rated hurdler Big Bucks would have been taken on by Diamond Harry amongst others. Like a lot of racing folk I cannot understand why the racing authorities have added the race to Newburys card on the 29th December. Why not add it to Cheltenhams card on January 1st when so many more people would be be able to watch and enjoy it.
Horse racing is very much a minority sport and needs all the good publicity it can get. This was very evident with the time alloted to it on BBC’s Sports Personality awards programme. Blink and you would have missed it.