AT this time of year, weather is the dictating factor regarding horse racing and trainers head for the Met Office forecasts before the form book. The past week has been a real hit and miss affair, writes Alec Russell.

Racing was possible at Newcastle last Wednesday and Norton trainer Tim FitzGerald saw his four-year-old gelding Captain Chaos make a winning debut under rules in the two-mile bumper.

Ridden by Andrew Tinkler, Captain Chaos swept into the lead two furlongs out to win by 17 lengths in very impressive style.

The following day there was no jumping in the north but Nawton’s David O’Meara and Westow’s Paul Midgley were represented, without success, at Meydan in Dubai.

Friday’s Catterick card was lost due to frost and snow but Wetherby managed to race on Saturday for their Towton Novices’ Chase day. No Ryedale winners materialised however but the Tim Easterby-trained pair, River Bollin and Bollin Ace, along with Nigel Tinkler’s Junior, in the hunter chase, managed to fill the runners-up spot.

Musselburgh, on the Firth of Forth, managed to stage its John Smith’s Scottish Cheltenham Trials meeting on Sunday, before succumbing to a severe frost for its Monday card.

The Sunday programme is the biggest of the season for the Scottish track, with £130,000 in prize money and Ryedale trainers were strongly represented with Brian Ellison sending up 14 runners - plus another seven for the abandoned Monday fixture.

This strike force did not provide a winner but three finished second, Yorkist, Streets of Newyork and, giving his usual display of slick hurdling, The Grey Taylor, while Full Day captured a third prize.

Champion jockey Tony McCoy had a disappointing start to the Musselburgh meeting aboard odds-on favourite El Namoose in the opener but he quickly got into winning ways in the John Smith’s Scottish Champion Chase as he produced a typically power-packed ride to give the O’Meara-trained Ifandbutwhynot a thrilling victory.

A talented hurdler for the Arthington Barn Stables handler, Ifandbutwhynot was 7-4 favourite to get off the mark over fences, having been runner-up in three successive starts in novice chases.

The front running Kie was joined by Swaledale Lad and Ellison’s Ultimate at the head of things to ensure a good pace with McCoy never too far behind.

Ifandbutwhynot moved handily into contention early in the home straight with three fences to jump and things were made easier when Sir Valentino fell soon after going in front.

Swaledale Lad kept going but but McCoy’s strength got the favourite home by half-a-length.

McCoy said: “It was a bit of a culture shock for him as he’s been running on heavy ground. They went very quick but he was very professional and very brave. He’s gone and done it well in the end.”

Remarkably the official going on Sunday was good, and that very fact attracted runners, and winners, to the Scottish track from as far afield as Lambourn and Cowlinge in Suffolk.

 

• THERE is much to look forward to in the coming months. In only five weeks we shall be at the Cheltenham Festival, the climax of the National Hunt season, and before the end of March the flat season on turf will have started with the Lincoln Handicap at Doncaster.

With the possibility of a real classic hope in John Quinn’s The Wow Signal, David O’Meara’s pair of speedsters G Force and Move In Time going for the sprint championship contests, and The Grey Gatsby being kept in training with a target of the Juddmonte International at York, the future for racing in our area looks really promising.

Highfield trainer Quinn has announced he is planning to give The Wow Signal a prep race before going for the QIPCO 2000 Guineas at Newmarket on May 2. He said: “The Wow Signal had a nice break and then came back in after Christmas and is back cantering. He is a big strong colt and is very enthusiastic.

“The 2000 Guineas is his number one spring target and I think it will be helpful to get a prep race into him beforehand, so he will probably go for the Craven Stakes at Newmarket in April or the Greenham at Newbury.”

Other high-quality performers such as Custom Cut and Hot Streak will be taking on the best and unquestionably Richard Fahey and Brian Ellison will be holding strong hands for the season ahead.

Apart from the racing itself, the Princess Royal will officially open the £450,000 accommodation facility for young racing staff, in Malton the week after next.

This facility is the culmination of a fund set up by national charity Racing Welfare following the tragic deaths of young jockeys Jamie Kyne and Jan Wilson in September 2009.

Another opening, later in the spring, will be Jack Berry House at Old Malton, the Injured Jockeys Fund second rehabilitation centre, following the success of Oaksey House in Lambourn.

It will provide physiotherapy, rehabilitation treatment, medical accommodations, and a fully equipped gym to help aid and speed recovery.

Jack Berry, vice president of the Injured Jockeys Fund said: “I’ve always wanted better facilities for jockeys and what has happened at Oaksey House has been so exciting. And revealing and for this to be happening in Malton is a dream come true for me”.

 

• MORE race meetings are falling foul of the freezing conditions.

All of today’s (Wednesday’s) jump meetings are off while hopes are not high for Doncaster and Huntingdon tomorrow (Thursday). Newbury, which stages Saturday’s major races has been covered for a week and John Quinn will be hoping for satisfactory conditions.

He has both Chieftain’s Choice and Forced Family Fun among the six-day declarations for the feature race - the Betfair Hurdle worth £155,000.

Quinn has had his sights on this valuable contest for Chieftain’s Choice since the gelding won at Catterick in December and must be hoping that the covers have kept the course frost free.

Tim Easterby’s Cheltenham winner Hawk High is also a contender.

And let us not forget the riders at the all-weather tracks, where Tony Hamilton has ridden four winners from his last 11 rides, in these freezing conditions.