#Course Track

Another blank week of jumps racing has forced me, not unreluctantly I should add, to widen the scope of the column this week. The latest prolonged cold snap might not have been as severe as some of those in my living memory - December in 1981 in Newcastle in my second year at Uni living in a soon-to-be-condemned terrace in Elswick with three others…

I might have cut my racing-interest teeth over jumps, or more particularly the point-to-point field, but I can't say the two-day jumps season opener at Chepstow (or three-day if you include Ffos Las) left me looking forward to the remainder of the season with any greater anticipation that I had before and judging by the relatively lukewarm…

They're pretty subtle; you'd be forgiven for missing them. Unless you had seen our twitter feed... That little'go faster' stripe icon - which might have a colour change in coming days to make it'pop' a touch more - indicates that a horse has finished quickly in one of its recent races. That, in turn, means it might be worth a second glance…