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Bird's Nest carrying 10-7 and beaten; shades of Harchibald losing a County Hurdle off 10 stone. Tammuz a half brother to Highclere ; his lad got a wonderful gift from The Queen Mother to remember his day by.

Given the ratings of those behind the winner ran like a "Schweppes " horse should against a field of horses that had no right to be in a premier handicap. In all likelihood he ran to high 140s against 120 horses thus was two strides faster going down to the start, let alone when the race was on...

Just looked at the final declarations now. Top rated 138; only 5 rated >131, 3 of which are aged 9, 10, 11. Where are all the good horses gone ? Hong Kong ? It is depressing to see things sink to this low; there was a time you needed a 135 plus rating to run in a premier handicap hurdle like this.

Connor was one of the best apprentice jockeys I had seen since Paul Carberry ; he had it all .Alas he was too tall and his weight went beyond control for flat or NH racing. Any success with Oscars Brother is well deserved for this bright, quiet, honest upright young man.

One horse bought before the weekend was Ballysax Hank , by Paul Byrne. He ran more than respectfully in 2m 1f handicap chase and will be interesting in Grand Annual/2m4f handicap on better ground. It may take quite a few horses quite a long time to recover from their exertions . Those that...

All eyes will be on Southwell now; they should throw in a schooling hurdle on the way to the start a la Auteuil for any tweed brigade that may be attending.

Proper horse though; he galloped, jumped and stayed at it to the line.

Check out www.leopardstown.com/masterplan Shaping tomorrow, they say, but no mention of flood management;.. yet.

Track was relayed four or five years ago.

Delighted to see Harry Cobden booked to ride Anzadam Sunday. All going well his Champion Hurdle price will halve again after.

Saturday sold out , one good reason for racing.

Myles na gCapallin's excellent "At Swim Two Birds "features a tipster. Correspondence was by letter with the recipient instructed to place so much for the tipster as well as his own bet. Losers were reasoned with "WE were really unlucky there " with a follow up tip "to help replenish OUR funds "...

You mean "That is 11.05 ante meridiem ". Does this mean I have to change my name handle to it's proper (oops!) full birth certificate name ? Any possibility of running all the chases saturday and the hurdles sunday ?

A great story was told about Connaught, runner up in the Derby to Sir Ivor. A big big horse, he was claustrophobic and allergic to newly introduced starting stalls; this was 1967. He refused to load on debut so went to Doncaster for Observer Gold Cup, finishing fourth after a tape start. To give...

Weekend ticket 75 Euro. 40 Euro daily. Pint about 8 Euro (stand to correction). Spirit measure 37.5ml as opposed to 25ml. 2nights/ 2 adults 200 to 400Euro plus. 20 Euro should feed you at the races.

Leopardstown was based on Sandown so there tiggers.

Between the City Of Troy and now the Constitution Hill day Southwell is well and truly on the map. Another hero of yesteryear who had a Champion Hurdle prep on the all weather was Harchibald at Dundalk.

Leopardstown used have a water jump ; it used to race right handed as well . Looks like the old days are well and truly back.

A lot hinges on ICH as to who goes where. Hopefully the ground won't be too soft to spoil the weekend's racing. I had a dream last night that Tom Lord Hogan wanted to supplement Hopeful Hero ; didn't know whether to laugh or cry. WPM made an interesting remark last year or the year before when...

Given the going was January soft as opposed to March soft why would that surprise you ? Emptying a horse before their main target is in nobody's interest. The Skeltons admitted to as much before the race to The Sun or some other paper "of record "