How do I know it’s Christmas time? When the Horse Tracker on my Racing Post account goes dormant. Just for two days. Seventeen runners on Boxing Day. What a perfect marketing plan. Offer good racing the day after Christmas. Presents are unwrapped, the needles of the tree falling with every errant draft and the dishes are stacked in the sink. What should we do? Go racing! Some day I’ll get to Kempton, Aintree, Leopardstown or one of the other eight tracks racing in Ireland and England. Some day.
I was told if you didn’t get a ride on Boxing Day, then hang it up.
This year, the racing shoots off the charts. Constitution Hill making his long-anticipated and much-talked about return in the Christmas Hurdle. Just four runners, but two of the best in the world. The once-beaten Lossiemouth. The never-beaten Constitution Hill. Thirty-five minutes later, it’s the King George VI. Irish raider Spillane’s Tower, British-based Grey Dawning, French phenom Il Est Francais. Banbridge, Corbetts Cross. L’Homme Presse…
And everything in between. I’ll tip-toe past the errant wrapping paper, the shirts that need taking back, the sad tree, the lamb-crusted dishes in the sink of a quiet house (six hours behind – not five – don’t make that mistake twice) in Birmingham (Alabama, not England) and pop onto my betting account. So many tracks, some you can’t watch. Kempton, Leopardstown, Aintree…certainly. A few Christmas wishes still to come.
