Horse trainers have faced challenging conditions due to the weather in the run up to races this Christmas.
It is a crucial time in the jump racing season and Boxing Day is a popular day for meetings with a number of fixtures scheduled around the UK.
“It’s our busiest time of year,” Jenny Louise Gordon from Morestead Stables told BBC South Today.
“A number of races have been cancelled but we’ve got a lot of horses ready to run.”
Many areas of the UK were hit with a cold-snap in mid-December with temperatures dropping close to freezing for more than a week.
It made training horses particularly hard and it has had an impact on the festive jump racing calendar too.
“It’s not great when meets get cancelled and it causes us some problems,” added Gordon.
“Sometimes it means the horses don’t do their full work but on the plus side it means they’ve had a little break as well – so they will be nice and fresh for other races.
“A big challenge is keeping the gallop unfrozen which means going up and down on the quad a lot and that is really cold work.
“We are lucky because we are able to keep going with the horses but we would like a bit of racing at the moment.”
Weather impacts crucial race preparation
Morestead Stables, near Winchester, expect to be racing more than a dozen horses at three separate jump meetings on Boxing Day.
Its staff have been doing all they can to help prepare the horses despite the up-and-down weather interrupting their regular training schedule.
“It impacts on a lot of things, for example, you try and decrease the food a little bit so they’re not getting too fresh,” said trainer Lucinda Sanderson.
“But training race horses you’re looking at that key relationship between workload and feed.
“Too much feed and you’re going to have very excitable horses and too little feed and you’re not going to keep them in condition – so it’s making sure that relationship is really good.”
Horses are tougher than we are
Morestead Stables are aiming to race at Kempton, Fontwell and Wincanton on Boxing Day.
Which means its trainers will be exercising the horses in-between unwrapping presents and eating their festive dinner on Christmas Day.
“Boxing Day is one of the best times for racing – it’s a celebration,” said trainer Chris Gordon.
“Kempton is one of the biggest racing days of the year and for us it’s a great meeting.
“The weather has been extraordinary and it does make it tough for the staff but they have been great.”
