Paul Webber Racing

There has been plenty written about the various ways that racing yards and racecourses have tried to manage through the current cold spell and all of us have our own ideas, experiments and changes of routine that we hope will see us through. The aim is to preserve and maintain the fitness of the horses, because in these conditions, it is difficult to actually increase and improve a horse's fitness. All yards are doing their upmost, but all trainers are wary of doing serious work on gallops that have been or still are, 'frost-affected'.
We cantered satisfactorily on the snow last thursday, friday and saturday and then re-started cantering on our all-weather (!) gallop yesterday and today. It would seem we are unlikely to have grass jump racing this week, but maybe things will improve over the weekend and next week may provide some action. Of course we all go through the motions and continue to make speculative entries, in case a balmy south or south-west wind arrives (without bringing snow) and a rapid thaw surprises everybody.
The Racing Authorities and Racecourses have done great work in re-scheduling and re-planning various meetings and we have tried to take advantage of unusual opportunities. We have declared three horses for the 2 mile handicap at Lingfield tomorrow, KRISTALLO, TRIBE and SARANDO. These three have also been declared again for thursday, along with KENTMERE! All these horses are itching to run and this looks a good way of galloping them with the chance of prizemoney! I do not intend to give you the answer to the Trifecta, but will say that all are as fit as can be in the current circumstances and are trying for their lives!
There are six N.H. Flat Races at Southwell tomorrow and we run BLACK ANNIE and OSMOSIA in the mares race. BLACK ANNIE ran pretty well at Ludlow, where we probably did not make enough use of her and Paddy Brennan rides her again tomorrow. Expect her to finish much closer this time, but she'll probably struggle to beat Nicky Henderson's. (how many times have we had to write that, this season?!) OSMOSIA is a charming, honest filly with a good French pedigree. She should handle the ground, which although is 'all-weather', has been riding very soft and testing recently.
All these runners are taking a different route to usual, but in these testing and challenging times we have to steer an uncharted passage through unknown waters. Hope the captain can avoid the reef and discover the treasure!