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Doncaster cancelled after early inspection.

Although not due to hold an inspection until tomorrow ahead of Wednesday's scheduled national hunt fixture, with snow still lying deep on the Town Moor course, and with more snow forecast for Monday and Tuesday, officials at Doncaster brought their intended inspection forward to today, and with impossible conditions for racing, an early decision was made to cancel Wednesday's planned meeting.

Wolverhampton to inspect on Monday morning.

Although the granulated ice crystals in the racing surface which caused the cancellation of the last Wolverhampton all weather meeting have been eradicated, a forecast of more overnight snow has necessitated officials at the Midlands course to call a precautionary inspection tomorrow morning ahead of Monday's proposed race meeting.

Towcester very pessimistic about Thursday fixture.

Although Towcester officials have announced a Monday inspection of their course, with road conditions around the venue having prevented staff from even getting to the track in recent days, the official word is, "Thursday's scheduled national hunt meeting is highly unlikely to go ahead".

Ryanair boost the value of their Cheltenham Chase.

The two mile five furlong Cheltenham Festival Ryanair Chase, won in 2009 by Imperial Commander, has had its prize fund boosted by an extra £30,000 from the race sponsers, thus making the renewal on Thursday 18 March 2010 worth £250,000.

Ryanair Founder and Chief Executive Michael O'Leary made the announcement today, saying,

"We are happy to move forward with the sponsership of what has become one of the major races of the Cheltenham Festival, but on a personal level, I would like to see the prize money come back to Ireland for the first time in 2010".

Starluck to take in Kingwell.

After consulting connections, trainer alan Fleming has confirmed Kempton Christmas Hurdle runner up Starluck will have his next outing in the Kingwell Hurdle at Wincanton in February.

While several Kingwell winners have gone on to land the major two mile hurdling prize at the Cheltenham Festival, the confirmed engagement at Wincanton may not be a prelude to a definite run in the Champion Hurdle, as Fleming admits there are currently no fixed plans with regard to which races may be selected for Starluck at the national hunt Spring Festivals at; Cheltenham, Aintree, and Punchestown.

Irish Champion run to determine Voler Cheltenham target.

Colm Murphy has admitted today, Voler la Vedette's next run in the Toshiba sponsered Irish Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown on 24 January will determine her target at the Cheltenham Festival.

Despite beating subsequent dual Grade 1 winning hurdler Go Native out of sight on her first outing this season, at the Leopardstown Christmas Festival meeting, Murphy gave his progressive mare a run in Listed class against her own sex rather than take on the major hurdlers in the December Hurdle, and he readily admits the Irish Champion Hurdle is now a fact finding mission.

"Voler la Vedette is entered in the David Nicholson Mares Hurdle and the Champion Hurdle, and we will only make ourminds up as to which race will be most suitable once we see how she fares against the major players in the Irish Champion Hurdle on 24 January".

Enright may have given punters a clue.

Jockey Phillip Enright has ridden Priest's Leap to victory in the last two renewals of the Thyestes Chase, but for this season's race at Gowran Park on 21 January, he has chosen to stay loyal to the Robert Tyner trained second favourite Footie Facts, while the ride on the Thomas O'Leary trained hat-trick seeking Priest's Leap will be taken by the very capable Andrew Mcnamara.

With Enright having ridden Footie Facts to victory on his recent hurdles outing, he obviously has an inside track as to the abilities of the Tyner trained gelding, and the fact he has by-passed two time winner Priest's Leap could resonnate in the anti post betting market on the upcoming race.

Five punters share Scoop Six.

Five happy punters are £32,984 richer thanks to the efforts of Lingfield and Kempton officials. For that is the amount each ticket holder has received by picking all six legs of yesterday's Totesport Scoop Six wager, the bet being based entirely on races at the two all weather racing venues.

To prove it can be done, one of the winning ticket holders only had a single £2 line which he placed through Totesports telephone centre on Saturday morning.

All five winners will now go forward to next Saturday, where they will try to add the £103,696 which is currently sitting in the Bonus Fund.

Joint owner dismisses Zenyatta claims.

Jerry Moss, the joint owner of American wonder mare Zenyatta, has moved to quosh rumours she is to stay in training. The six-year-old capped her fourteen race unbeaten record by becoming the first female to land the Breeders Cup Classic in November, but after that race, her owners announced she would go to the Kentucky paddocks as probably the most sought after brood mare in world racing.

However, bad weather in Kentucky has meant she has stayed with her trainer John Shirreffs in California for the past few weeks, and during that time she has had three gallops to keep her in condition, but pundits and hacks being what they are, they construed this could mean Zenyatta could be staying in training for another season, but by use of public statements to the press, Moss has now scotched this Badly informed rumour.

Callaghan fails to score with first American runner.

Having taken over the Newmarket operation from his father Neville Callaghan in 2008, Simon Callaghan decided he wanted to move the training operation to Santa Anita in California, a task he completed before Christmas. But if he had hoped to score with his first ever runner in America, his hopes were dashed yesterday when Locksley Hall could only manage fifth behind El Mirage King in a six and a half furlong Maiden Fillies Handicap at the Santa Anita race track.

Nicholls happy with Masterminded.

Paul Nicholls has confirmed Masterminded has returned to light exercise following a period of recouperation from a rib injury diagnosed in November 2009. In a short interview, Nicholls said,

"I am quite happy with his work so far, but we will only know how well he is recovering once we step up his regime, and we still have a long way to go to get him in the right kind of shape to defend his Champion Chase title".

Massive thumbs up for Southwell Bumper Card.

Southwell's decision to stage a six race card for national hunt bumper horses on Wednesday 13 January 2010 has been given a massiv vote of approval by national hunt trainers. At Saturday's deadline, 242 horses had been entered, with no less than 67 being entered for the first race on the new card - the Maiden Bumper.

The major problem Southwell will now face is balloting the horses for each of the proposed races, but if the cold weather continues, with this kind of positive response from the national hunt racing community, Southwell officials may well think this kind of fixture could be repeated.