Tuesday 31 January

Handicap adjustments are made on Tuesdays, so we were all expecting some radical changes when they were published at 8.00am. We were very surprised, but not pleasantly! Firstly we will deal with Colebrooke - taken to Cheltenham on Saturday to take on the very best of the Juvenile division as he has 2 penalties, and a handicap mark of 136- which means he can't run in ordinary juveniles because of the penalties, and is way too high for handicaps. The result, a comprehensive defeat as expected, but we felt that at least the assessor would get a handle on how good he was and give us a chance in future handicaps. He was defeated 24 lengths by a horse that has been given a new rating of 146 yet he has only been dropped 4lbs to 132! How can that be? He really is in no-mans land now. He will be too low to get into the Conditional Jockeys race at the Festival, as the 4yr old allowance (9lbs) will take him too far down the list, and he is still too high for the Fred Winter, which is also an inadequate test, as we found out on Saturday! Planning his next move is a toughie! Justazippy has gone up 8lbs to 115 for winning at Market Rasen - her next intended run was in a 0-115 at Uttoxeter, and top weight in that would be a very big ask - she may have to wait. The only other mover and shaker is a new entry into the charts - Smart Exit - straight in at 108 - which is plenty for what he has achieved, I can see how he got there, but it leaves very little room for movement!