January is a bleak month at the best of times, and racing in spectator-free courses is ebbing away the enthisiasm of all byt the most ardent fan and some professionals too. However, at lowly Bangor today, three of our lesser lights found the opportunity to shine. Evesham's Tony Carroll is largely focused on the Flat nowadays, but opened his account for the National Hunt season belatedly when Man ...

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Gloucestershire handlers filled the top 4 berths in Kempton Park's 3m Handicap Chase this afternoon, but had mixed fortunes in the day's feature event, the Silviniaco Conti Chase later the same afternoon.  Whilst there have been some notable highlights in top drawer races, the Slad stable of Tom George has not been making headlines in the bread and butter races of mid week fixtures, but it b...

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In the light of the Prime Minister’s Announcement last night, the Point-to-Point Authority acted immediately to call a pause to the Point to-Point season from today.  Peter Wright, CEO of the governing body, remarked, "Whilst I know that many of you would have liked to press on, and indeed the sport remains inherently safe, we cannot claim that we are acting in a vacuum.  The...

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If Kempton's Christmas fixture  was largely dominated by Paul Nicholls and his former pupil Dan Skelton, it was left to the in-form O'Brien and Bailey yards to fly the flag for Gloucestershire further afield at Wetherby.  After Storm Bella had left much of Wetherby looking like a tributary of the Don, remarkably the fixture survived with the omission of several fences, for which most jo...

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