All Things Horse Racing

For Christmas glitz and glamour look to Kempton on Boxing Day. For the tough, get going to Chepstow two days later. On Monday, when Kauto Star and Co are safely tucked up back in their stables, the marathon slog that is the Coral Welsh National is the centrepiece and 44 years of hurt could come to an end as Tim Vaughan aims to become the first Welsh trainer since 1965 to keep the principality's most valuable race at home.

• Best odds about record fourth King George win is just 8-13 • Rival trainer admits that favourite has 'no weak points' It takes a great deal to warm the chilly heart of a bookmaker but, if Kauto Star is beaten in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, even the layers may start to believe in Santa Claus. For three years running, Paul Nicholls' outstanding chaser has taken the race as favourite and, with Nicholls carrying all before him over the last five weeks and punters looking to play up their winnings, Saturday's renewal looks like a boom-or-bust race on both sides of the betting equation. If Kauto Star were truly unbeatable, of course, he would be a 1-50 chance. Instead, the shortest price with the major bookies is 1-2, while Coral still offer 8-13. The odds may favour the backers, but the layers have certainly not given up hope. "You can't really knock the horse or his record around Kempton," James Knight, Coral's senior odds compiler, said yesterday, "and there's no...

• Spending on integrity services will be slashed by 11% • Cutbacks follow 13% drop in contribution from Irish government Irish racing will move into a new decade with its finances heading in the opposite direction after Horse Racing Ireland announced a series of budget cuts today that will see prize money return to 2002 levels. Integrity services and grants to industry bodies will also be cut, all funding for capital development projects has been stopped and HRI's own staff will face pay cuts of 6%. The new budgets were published yesterday following a meeting of the HRI board on Monday. The cuts have been forced on the sport's administrators by a similar reduction in the grant that they receive from the Irish Government, which was slashed by 13% in a recent austerity budget. HRI said yesterday that prize-money in Irish racing in 2010 will be cut by 10.2% to €47.7m, a drop of €5.4m. The only good news for smaller owners and trainers is that the reductions will be made at the upper...

Five and a half months after losing a leg, Light Dragoons officer Guy Disney is riding again.

Willie Mullins will wait until he is happy with his string of stable stars before unleashing his firepower.

The latest news and best bets in our daily horse racing blog Today's best bets, by Will Hayler It would appear that the freezing temperatures have now brought the world wide web to its knees in York today, as i'm struggling to find an internet connection anywhere in the city. The thermometer in my car is reading -5C, which can't be doing much for Wetherby's prospects of racing on the 26th and 27th. Racing does go ahead at Southwell today though and its a much better all-weather card than we have had to get used to recently. With this being the last day of racing before Boxing Day, it's worth taking a close look at each race individually. 12.25 Blades Harmony comes from the stable of Ed McMahon, which has its share of debut winners, and there is plenty of speed in this gelding's pedigree. At 13-2, he can prove the value ahead of odds-on favourite Secretive. 12.55 The undoubted highlight of the card. Nightjar looks a perplexingly short price for a horse who has not won any of his last...

Britain's Peter Charles and Ireland's Cameron Hanley shared the honours after jumping five clear rounds in yesterday's Six Bar competition on the closing day of the London International Horse Show at Olympia.

If it is true that jockeys are as bad at tipping as urban myth says they are, then perhaps that does not bode well for Kauto Star's chances of winning an unprecedented fourth consecutive King George VI Chase. It was no great surprise to hear yesterday that his own rider, Ruby Walsh, is not contemplating defeat for the great nine-year-old on Boxing Day. And maybe none, either, that his views are echoed by his good friend and colleague Tony McCoy, who will be on last year's eight-length runner-up Albertas Run and who is nothing if not pragmatic about what is written in the formbook.

Even never-say-die Champion jockey Tony McCoy can't think of a way to beat Kauto Star in the King George.

• Leading Champion Hurdle fancy is 'major doubt' for March race • Kempton confident that King George will beat weather Hurricane Fly, one of the favourites for the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, will miss his intended engagement at Leopardstown next week and is a major doubt for the rest of the season after suffering an injury to a ligament. Willie Mullins's five-year-old won three times at Grade One level as a novice last season and was a short-priced favourite for the Supreme Novice Hurdle at Cheltenham before being forced to miss the Festival after suffering a splint problem. Until yesterday's news broke, he was 11-2 for the Champion Hurdle, just half a point behind the favourite, Zaynar. "We weren't happy with Hurricane Fly over the weekend and we were a lot less happy with him today," Mullins told the Racing Post last night. "He has a sprained suspensory ligament and Leopardstown is definitely out of the question, and there also has to be a major doubt about him making...

Richard Dunwoody, in his own brand of dancing, will lead off at the Ledbury Hunt Ball.

After 20 years of action on artificial surfaces, there is no reason for punters to shun this branch of the sport It would not be a proper cold snap without a farcical abandonment somewhere, to keep tempers warm if nothing else. Haydock duly obliged on Saturday, when a valuable card was called off less than half an hour before the first race had been due to start. Kirkland Tellwright, the clerk of the course, had insisted at 11am that racing would go ahead. Two jockeys standing on top of a frozen fence were among those who begged to differ. Tellwright, along with John Kettley, the track's weather forecaster, received abuse from punters and pundits. A personal view, though, is that while their optimism was clearly misguided, along with their faith in the "science" of forecasting, they were at least acting with the positive intent of doing everything possible to get racing on. We all make mistakes and this was certainly one of them, but it would be a pity if the derision that was heaped...

The latest news and best bets in our daily horse racing blog Best bets on turf, by Chris Cook We're doing a bit of team tipping today. I've had a look at today's jumps card at Ffos Las, which has survived an early-morning inspection, while m'colleague Mr Wood weighs in below with his tips for Kempton. You'll get no prizes for guessing the jockey who has established himself as the most successful so far at the new Welsh track. Yes, it's Tony McCoy, whose nine winners from 18 rides gives him a quite amazing 50% strike-rate. In second place, as ever, is Richard Johnson, and the pair may well fight out the finish to the staying handicap chase. McCoy's mount, Zanzibar Boy (1.35), is clearly not the heartiest, being a 10-year-old with just a dozen career starts behind him. Still, he's managed to win on Boxing Day twice in the past, so this is his time of year and he showed enough on his two starts at the end of last season to convince me that he can win off his current mark, even though it...

Your chance to show off your knowledge of horse racing and win a £50 bet with Totesport Welcome to our racing-related quiz of the year, the first time we've ever done something like this. Who knows what the response will be? If I have to answer all the questions myself, it may well be the last one as well. Starting at 1pm, I'm going to add questions to this page in blocks of five. There will be a total of 50 questions and I'll post another batch of five every five minutes or so, so you'll have to keep refreshing your page. If you think you know the answer to a question, post your answer as a comment below, clearly stating the number of the question you're answering and doing your best to spell the answer correctly (I may allow some latitude). So, for example, if the first question was "Which sport is currently spending hundreds of thousands of pounds on marketing itself, but has not yet been able to post a video of Denman winning the Gold Cup online?", you would answer: "1. Horse...

• Frozen track hits tomorrow's all-weather meeting • But today's racing at Ffos Las goes ahead Tomorrow afternoon's meeting at Bangor has been abandoned due to a frozen track following an 8am inspection. Temperatures dipped to minus three overnight and with the same forecast again for tonight, officials took the decision to draw stumps early. "We've had to abandon," said clerk of the course Ed Gretton. "We are not raceable at present as parts of the course are frozen with frost embedded in the track and we don't think it will improve sufficiently enough in time. "It got to minus three last night and the same is forecast again tonight and with the short days it will just not rise quickly enough. "There will not be enough energy in the sun to allow us to race." Bangor's abandonment leaves Southwell's all-weather meeting as the only card scheduled after Monday before Boxing Day. This afternoon's meeting at Ffos Las, meanwhile, will go ahead as planned after the course brought forward a...

Eric van der Vleuten made good use of his horse's swift turn of foot yesterday, when he rode VDL Groep Tomboy to win the FEI Rolex World Cup Qualifier at the London International Horse Show at Olympia. The Dutchman (right) received the plum prize of £23,775 and deprived Ireland's Cian O'Connor of his lead on Roncorrado by 0.31sec. Third place went to Frenchwoman Penelope Leprevost on Mylord Carthago.

We in Britain really should be in our element. The weather is the prime topic of conversation and those who forecast it the target for angst. Remember that hurricane? For poor old Michael Fish, now read his former Beeb meteorologist colleague John Kettley, whose predictions that temperatures would rise at Haydock on Saturday morning failed to materialise as the track and its fences froze solid.

We in Britain really should be in our element. The weather is the prime topic of conversation and those who forecast it the target for angst. Remember that hurricane? For poor old Michael Fish, now read his former Beeb meteorologist colleague John Kettley, whose predictions that temperatures would rise at Haydock on Saturday morning failed to materialise as the track and its fences froze solid.

Businessman has enjoyed enormous success from owning a handful of racehorses National Hunt followers tend to have a fixed image of Clive Smith. He is the man in the tweed with specs and a smile, leading in Kauto Star or Master Minded after their latest big-race success. It would surprise many of them to hear that he is also a keen big-game fisherman but not, perhaps, that, when he casts his line into the sea, he rarely waits long for a bite. "The first time I ever went out on a boat off New Zealand, I caught a marlin that was over 200lb," Smith says. "The skipper of the boat said I was a lucky English so-and-so. The best I've had was a marlin of 420lb, which is about half the weight of Kauto Star. It took an hour to reel it in and there were people pouring buckets of water over me to cool me down." Smith will be back in New Zealand shortly after Christmas but not before Kauto Star, the outstanding chaser of the last 20 years, has attempted to become the first horse in history to win...

John Francome has fond memories of his two King George winners.

Clive Smith says watching his star chaser race doesn't get any easier.

The latest news and best bets in our daily horse racing blog Today's best bets How much longer is racing going to keep paying John Kettley for his counsel on the weather? Having forecast that temperatures would rise quickly enough to keep the ground from freezing at lunchtime yesterday, Kettley left the sport looking silly when the thermometer went back down again. Nobody can get it right all of the time but perhaps the time has come for racing to investigate other options. I wonder what Bill Giles is up to these days. However, rather than courting further controversy by mentioning yesterday's distressing (for those who backed the meeting to go ahead at 1-100 on Betfair) abandonment of Haydock's meeting, we'll focus instead on what is happening and have a quick look at Kempton's card. Thunderstruck (2.15) has recaptured form since being fitted with cheekpieces and may not have been quite at his best when only fourth last time out at Wolverhampton. He raced a little freely in the early...

Old Etonian winning trainer appears in costume drama while celebrating winner EGERTON LETS IT RIP Charlie Egerton is certainly one of the best bred among the ranks of jumps trainers, but sartorial elegance has never been a first priority for the master of Heads Farm Stables in Chaddleworth. The Old Etonian (left) was on hand to welcome back a winner, Westlin' Winds, at Plumpton this week while wearing a jacket with a rip right across the back. "You would have thought he could afford a new coat," said one of his celebrating owners. GET A LIFE There was a pleasing reminder this week that neither Martin Pipe nor David Elsworth (right) have lost their mischievous sense of humour. The training legends were invited guests at a lunch ahead of the William Hill-sponsored King George VI Chase, where Elsworth revealed that he loves jump racing as much as ever, despite now concentrating only on the Flat. "I promise you, every Saturday I can't wait to get the Racing Post," he said, before adding,...

They also serve whose fate is only sand. Ice and snow claimed not only the high-class jump card at Ascot but also at Haydock, where yesterday's meeting was called off half an hour before the first race was due to be run. That turned the focus towards Lingfield, where the surroundings glistened white and the temperatures barely rose above zero but the track lived up to its all-weather tag.

This year's Grand National made Venetia Williams the second female trainer ever to win the race when her horse, 100-1 shot Mon Mome, raced to victory. On a biting December day at Cheltenham, the owners and trainers enclosure is a haven of warmth and good cheer. As its inhabitants crowd around the TVs, noisily urging on their runners, Venetia Williams watches the race silently, her expression inscrutable. Amid the loud tweeds and fur stoles, the 49-year-old trainer cuts an extremely elegant, almost detached, figure. Williams recalls when she was here in March, on one of the biggest occasions in the racing calendar, watching her horses take first and second place in the Cheltenham Festival Plate, the third-placed rider nowhere to be seen. "It was a real career highlight," she says with a smile. Little did she know that within a month, it would be utterly eclipsed. Williams had entered two horses in April's Grand National, both outsiders. Mon Mome, ridden by a young jockey, Liam...

It is not only women who like spas. Tom George's racehorse Nacarat spent a week at the Equine Services Centre.

Kauto Star has only Madison du Berlais to fear in Kempton's Boxing Day spectacular Getting the same Christmas present for four years running will not disappoint followers of jumps racing's most popular horse. In 1986, Desert Orchid gained the first of four victories that turned the three-mile King George VI Chase into must-watch sporting action. His dazzling displays of awesome jumping and relentless galloping turned him into a national icon. Kauto Star bids to match the famous grey on Boxing Day and earn his place as another racing great by becoming only the second horse to win the race four times. Alongside his three wins in the race, Ruby Walsh's mount has twice beaten Denman to win the Gold Cup and also taken two Tingle Creek chases, demonstrating a versatility for different tracks and trips that makes him very much cut from the same cloth as Dessie. All of his King George victories have been delivered in emphatic fashion and even though he has shown a tendency to clout the final...

Today's Haydock card has been abandoned (frozen track). See our best bets from Lingfield in our daily racing blog Haydock abandoned 12.35: Today's meeting at Haydock has been called off due to a frozen track less than 30 minutes before the scheduled start of the first race. The course had passed a morning inspection – but officials had to look again at noon after temperatures failed to rise. The decision was reached after a second inspection for which officials were joined by a deputation of trainers and jockeys. The champion jockey Tony McCoy said: "The fences are frozen and as far as the ground is concerned it's debatable whether they should have raced or not, but I think they have done the right thing." The trainer Ferdy Murphy agreed, saying: "I have been out there and the fences are frozen. And as for the ground it's just 50-50 whether you would run a horse on it or not." The six-race card should have begun at 12.40pm and featured the Tommy Whittle Handicap Chase. Against a...

Beaten by a millimetre last month, the young jockey outlines his plan for redemption on Imperial Commander It is four weeks since one of the most disappointing moments in Paddy Brennan's riding career, and one week until he gets the chance to set things straight. Brennan rode a brilliant race on Imperial Commander in the Betfair Chase at Haydock last month, and as they crossed the line nose-to-nose with Kauto Star, the jockey was convinced that he had beaten the Gold Cup winner. The news that he had not was an abrupt and unexpected blow. "It was hard at Haydock," Brennan said yesterday. "I was sure that I'd won. There's not many photos when you really think you're not sure which way it's gone, and I didn't even think it would take long to get the result. Ruby [Walsh] said "Well done", and I'd built myself up for such a happy moment, and then I got knocked down." Brennan was hardly alone. The photo-finish betting on Betfair made Imperial Commander a 1-3 chance, and even after the print...

The finest jockeys of their generation reveal the special bond that keeps their friendship so strong Inside the weighing room at Newbury racetrack Tony McCoy slings a saddle over his shoulder and opens the door to take a look at the world outside. He stares at the first flakes of snow falling on to the muddy parade ring opposite the jockeys' private sanctuary. "Has the sun not come out yet?" he yells hopefully to one of the freezing stewards. "It's going to get worse than this," the man warns. "You never know," McCoy grins. "It might surprise us." The 35-year-old turns away to prepare for another day of winter racing over the dangerous jumps. McCoy is on course to secure his 15th consecutive champion jockey's title having already made racing history in February by riding his 3,000th winner. Those achievements prompted Richard Dunwoody, the last man before McCoy to be champion jockey, to make a striking claim. "AP McCoy is the sportsman of the decade," Dunwoody told me. "The fact that...