We have two runners tonight at Leicester

It’s much warmer this morning with the temperature set to soar as it comes up from France and Spain. I think it is forecast to be in the high 20’s as the day goes on. It is going to be even hotter on Saturday. We are a rider down today due to illness and one non-runner in the yard, so it is all hands on deck once again. All is going well and the team is working really hard. It is just frustrating when you don’t have a full quota. We had Pat Cornell call in to see his two-year-old this morning and he is always good fun. He is going racing later which makes a good day of it. The horses have been cantering mainly on Hamilton Hill which is certainly riding well.

Our runner last night was very disappointing and I don’t know what to make of it. Maybe the race was not run to suit and going right handed is the wrong way round. It’s back to the drawing board, but as we all saw at Chelmsford, when she finished a good second, she has plenty of ability and we will be aiming at another race there in the not too distant future. I have her in the paddock this morning enjoying the sunshine.

We have two runners this evening at Leicester. The first is Break Cover in the two-year-old seven furlong novice at 6.25. He is a horse with a future and it will be interesting to see how he shapes up tonight. There are one or two horses in the race with form so just a good run would suffice. Quanah has had a fair time off but is fit and well. Blinkers and a tongue strap have been fitted and again we hope for a decent run. We have always liked him and he has shown promise, but this year he has been disappointing so far.

I see the prize money situation gets no better. After a meeting yesterday a lot of the races will be reduced by at least £500. This is all due to the drop in the levy revenue. Nobody in authority seems to be able to understand why the drop but it doesn’t take many brains to realise that the levy is collected in the wrong way. However, the government seems to think that racing has got to help itself before they help us. It is such a pity no politicians have any interest in our industry but love to get the tax revenue stream from the bookmarkers. This situation cannot encourage anybody and the BHA and the powers that be must address this and come up with the right answer as soon as possible.