We had a great day at Newton Abbot yesterday and a long overdue winner with BILLY MY BOY advised at 9/1, running prominently and staying on bravely to end my own personal drought and to give us some nice overall profit on the day. Our own sponsored race; despite only 5 runners although of good quality, delivered a superb finish with 3 jumping the last upsides, a worthy and deserved winner, and a lovely Owner/Breeder who was a delight to chat to and epitomised all that is good about National Hunt Racing.

I have to pay tribute to Newton Abbot, we were treated like millionaires, every attention to detail spot on. cracking Carvery and a pleasure to meet David (aka DC Tipping Mr Elite and his brother Ian); SP2A Members including Chris M; who has some fascinating ideas and thoughts about "systems" and last but not least the legendary Gary Priestley, who I had not met before, but who is now a near neighbour. A lovely friendly bloke, a walking encyclopedia of Racing, and just a few hours in his Company, discussing strategies and how he works (which is actually very similar to the SP2A model; especially on the virtues of each way betting) was a huge confidence booster and validation, from his own experience, that we all have downturns and his sage advice was most welcome.

Lets hope for some profit today, all longish pokes but reduced stakes of 3 points overall and then we will move on to some far better quality racing over the weekend and then to my favourite Flat Course and best non (major) Festival meeting of the year at York next week.