Next stop Chaddesley Corbett and it’s certainly going to be competitive! The five we have entered are all in good order but we’ll need plenty of luck on our side if we’re going to get in the money. We’re hopeful that they will run well, however, the important thing is to get them all back safe and sound.

I was having a whine about the music in the yard in my last blog post and I can report that it hasn’t improved much, in fact, I was tempted to put a pitch fork through the radio at about 8.30am this morning due to the utter crap that was being played on Radio 1 (again). Kate Gowing agreed with me as well! In other news, Mrs Ellis (trainers mum) popped up at the weekend to plant the trough – as you can see from the pics it looks great.

Cottenham follows hot on the heels of Chaddesley and we will be entering four, here are the trainers thoughts:

Celtic Silver (Cedric) – he won the Restricted at the opening meeting and will now go up a grade and possibly take on Lough Inch.

Roberto Pegasus (Robert) – formerly trained by Alan King, this will be his first run for us and the second runner of the week for our Ice and a Slice Racing Club (which had a mention in the latest Horse & Hound). He was out with the Warwickshire hounds during the week and he loved it, his ears were pricked all afternoon. Goes in the Ladies Open, Kate Gowing will ride.

Bilzic – ex Dan Skelton, is also entered at Chaddesley, lots to like about him and we hope he can pick up a Maiden.

King’s Walden (Blackjack) – has had one run in a p2p, finishing third. Has plenty of speed and we’ll see how he goes in the Maiden.

We had four out hunting from the yard last Thursday, Kate on Robert, the champ on Tomtom, Amy Blakemore on Molly and Sam Boileau on Bugsy, they all thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and were joined by Harry Skelton. Harry added a touch of class to proceedings as his mount was former Irish National winner, Niche Market.

There will be more hunting this week so we probably won’t see the champ until Christmas day, although I reckon she will pop in for ‘secret Santa’ later in the week as she missed Christmas jumper day on Friday!

Since my last blog post we’ve had a very good schooling session (pics below) with the horses involved jumping hurdles and fences after a spin on the gallops – trainer and champ were pleased. We also had a couple of owners in to watch, Cliff Myers and John Docker, and the trainer was back in the saddle – he said “I’ve still got it”.

The week also saw my debut in Horse & Hound as I wrote my first ‘comment’ column in the point-to-point section. I was pleased with the article and I’m looking forward to my next one – to read it you will have to buy a copy of subscribe online.

The yard Christmas party was ‘interesting’ and we had a good night (plenty of laughs and daft party games) with most of us sleeping over. The coolest 51 year old in Warwickshire slept on a bean bag on the floor and Gina’s face was a picture when she got up on Sunday morning and found me in her kitchen still in my pyjamas!