Monday 31 January

We would rather waste a day than spoil a nice young horses career were the sentiments yesterday, when we went all the way to Hereford only to walk the course and declare Grey Bobby a non runner in the bumper. The ground was awful, and as he is only a four year old we could not put him through that sort of test! He needs to go to the racecourse and enjoy his debut, which we are pretty sure he would not have done yesterday, Stuart and I went to the start of the 2 mile Noovice chase and heard AP McCoy say that it was the worst ground he had ridden on at Hereford, and one of the other jocks said that it was awful on the hurdles course and the horses were 'swimming' on it. So out Grey Bobby came, and we headed for home! At least the sun shone, and the drive wasn't too bad. Thanks to all of his owners who were very understanding, I think only Ben Turner had started the treck, and he could see why the decision was made, so he turned around and went home again.We did learn that Grey Bobby travels well, and the good news is that he came home and ate up last night, so if ground conditions suit he can go to Chepstow at the end of the week, or alternatively there are a host of bumpers he can run in between now and Feb 12th, including one at Wetherby on Saturday that he will be entered for today. Omaruru will today be entered for 2 races at Sandown on Saturday, and one at Fontwell on Sunday.