It is hard to tell what day or month it is especially with this fabulous weather but today is the day flat racing returns in England.  The rest of sport will be watching but I am confident this will open the way for National Hunt racing to start on 1st July.

Normally in June we would have a few horses in for summer jumping and the majority of the others would be starting their summer holidays. This year, with all the horses going on holiday so early we had a completely empty yard for 3 weeks. This was the first time the yard has been totally empty since I started training in 1998.

The summer jumpers only had a short break and started back in work a couple of weeks ago. The rest of the horses will now come in during June having enjoyed an enforced early holiday.

We have made provision for the staff to return to work safely under Government guidelines.  All members of staff have their own mucking out kit, buckets, grooming kits and tack and there are a number of hand washing facilities around the yard. There are lots of hoops to jump through including every member of staff needing to pass a test before they can go racing.

So a busy few weeks ahead but fingers cross the start of a new season for us all.