Thursday 30 January

A hectic morning - with Colebrooke declared in Sandown for Saturday - yesterday evening Mr Nicholls was unsure if Saphir Du Rhea would be declared in Sandown or not, as the weather was playing havoc with his plans like everyone elses. If his horse ran we could not declare Colebrooke as he would have been 12lbs out of the handicap! Luckily this morning they decided not to run, so C was declared - Jamie Moore rides. After his last couple of runs it looks like a very ambitious declaration for Colebrooke, but, he is 1lb lower than his last winning mark which was achieved on heavy ground off of a low weight over this trip! He also has course form, winning a hurdle race in Sandown a couple of years back. The return to hurdles will be an advantage, and the blinkers are reapplied - let's hope the hurdles course doesn't get waterlogged (every chance it will) and he gets to run for a few quid. It it's on a low eight in that ground would be a great help!! One who would not like the ground is Dawn Commander - so he gets to go to Kempton in a Jumpers Bumper on the all weather tomorrow. This lovely horse will be having his first start for Fences Farm, and it will be interesting to see how he goes. He is in the 4.40pm and Brendan Powell rides! With Sandown making every effort to stage a meeting on Saturday, they announced yesterday that if the hurdles were lost to waterlogging, but the chase track was still fit they would stage replacement chases. One of these is a 0-125 novices handicap over 2m 4f which is ideal for Benefit Cut, so as it is free entry he was put in. Sam Twiston Davies, who rode him last time, is keen to reunite with him!! Everything else is in fantastic form! It just needs to stop raining now!!!!