About

Welcome to the site, my name’s Rod and the start of the 2010 National Hunt season has seen me take the plunge and set up a blog which I hope to use as a platform to write about my thoughts and opinions with everything concerning my first sporting love, Jumps Racing.

As a horse racing fan of over 30 years, I take great pride in the fact that I have attended at least one day of every Cheltenham Festival dating back to 1987, missing only 2001 because of the foot and mouth outbreak!

I regularly attend other race meetings usually at Wincanton where I am a member and I can also be found at tracks around the South West throughout the Winter months but  it is my annual pilgrimage to the sport’s show-piece event that explains my collection of 26 notepads containing information about various horses, races, trainers and owners that ‘have gone over the jumps’ down the years.

Some say it’s ironic that I’m not a particularly high staking punter but I get my enjoyment from studying form, stats, trends etc, much in the same way I enjoy following the football results and league tables. If I can make a few quid in the process all good and well, but I don’t budget for paying my summer holiday on the back of my Cheltenham Festival antepost portfolio, although that has happened on a couple of occasions! The most memorable came on Gold Cup day in 2003 when I backed five of the seven winners; Baracouda in the Stayers Hurdle, Best Mate in the Gold Cup, Kingscliff in the Foxhunters, La Landiere in the Cathcart and Palarshan in the Grand Annual which saw me walkout of Prestbury Park a healthy four figure sum better off and better still, the satisfaction that months of note keeping and form study had paid dividends!

In the last couple of years, I have ditched the pen and paper and upgraded to a laptop to keep tabs on the goings on the goings on in the National Hunt scene and to say it was the best thing I ever did would be an understatement. Not only am I far more organised with my lists of horses and stats, but I’ve opened up a whole new world of resources to aid my love of horse racing and develop my knowledge of sport and betting.

Having finally caught up to speed with the revolution that is the internet, I recently found myself signed up to Facebook and Twitter (courtesy of help from the kids) and once again, discovered a whole new world of tools and communities for racing fans and as they say, ‘the rest is history…’ and I find myself having a go at ‘blogging’.

Down the years I have identified a host of National Hunt races that I like to keep a close eye with a view to solving the conundrums of what is now 27 races at the Cheltenham Festival. I hope to share some of my thoughts and analysis of various races throughout the Winter in the hope that a handful of fellow racing enthusiasts can make use of what is nothing more than a hobby for me and perhaps, over time, others can perhaps share discussions and views also with the comments function.

It should be noted that this site is by no means intended to be a tips service but purely a blog to allow a racing enthusiast  to share his love of all things Jumps Racing.

If you would like to get in touch, please feel free to Send me an email.