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. For all the runners and riders with the jockey's colours go to Paddy Power and click on "Horse Racing".

The Cheltenham Boylesports International Meeting gets underway today (Friday) with some great racing in prospect culminating with the International Hurdle worth £150,000 tomorrow. This race looks to be a rematch of last years Cheltenham Champion Hurdle where Punjabi just beat Celestrial Halo and Binocular. Barry Geraghty rides Punjabi and come next March he might have a difficult choice to make between Punjabi and Zaynar (pictured) who was mighty impressive at Ascot. Zaynar runs tomorrow in the Relkeel Hurdle which is the last race on the card. The big betting race is the Boylesports.com Gold Cup Handicap Chase worth £150,000 and run over 2 miles 5 furlongs. It looks a very open affair with a lot of old favourites running. There are some interesting runners coming over from Ireland and the pot might well go back across the Irish Sea with Sky's The Limit if he puts his best foot forward. For all the runners and riders with the jockey's colours go to Paddy Power and click on "Horse Racing".

For the third Saturday running Ruby Walsh and Paul Nicholls won the "big" race. Kauto Star just at Haydock, Denmans demolition job at Newbury and Twist Magics' pillar to post at Sandown. All three horses were superbly ridden by Ruby Walsh and of course brilliantly trained by the Paul Nicholls team. Denmans (pictured left) performance under top weight in the Hennessy was a Cheltenham Gold Cup winning performance. Will Ruby Walsh pick Denman as his Gold Cup ride or will he stay loyal to Kauto Star. If both horses get to Cheltenham fit and well in March 2010 it promises to be another great race between the two stable companions. The excitement is already mounting and Denmans performance in the Hennessy has seen a rush for tickets for Gold Cup day. For tickets and all the latest news from Cheltenham click here. For all the runners and riders with the jockey's colours go to Paddy Power and click on "Horse Racing".