It’s been bitterly cold all week but we were able to exercise the horses almost as much as normal up until Friday morning.

Starting on Thursday afternoon and carrying on into the night, we had three or four inches of snow and now the water pipes are frozen.

It’s been hard enough just to clear the yard and get the horses on the walker.

We’d been anticipating this weather, so made sure that we exercised the horses we needed to earlier in the week, and now it’s just a case of how quickly we can get back into our normal routine.

When we do get back to work there’s bound to be some fresh ones, that's for sure.

Jumpers-Bumpers at Kempton

I’ve just made several entries for Monday’s Jumpers Bumper card at Kempton, so we want to get going again soon.

Sir Ivan is in a couple of races. His last two runs have been disappointing over fences and we’re hoping this could work as a bit of a confidence booster.

Ritas Bid is in the mares’ bumper. She ran encouragingly on ground that was softer than ideal at Doncaster, so hopefully she can take another step forward from that.

Dashing Oscar is a horse that we’ve been waiting to run on better ground and this looks a good opportunity to tee him up for something later on in the month.

I’ve been toying with the idea of running General Ginger on the Flat so we’ve entered him for one of the bumpers, too.

He kicks more of his hurdles out of the ground than he jumps so a Jumpers Bumper might just be ideal for him.

One horse we are looking to bring out on the Flat again is American Gigolo.

We could go back over hurdles on better ground, but I’m quite keen to target one of the valuable handicaps over Easter time, including a nice race up at Musselburgh.

Fran Berry has been getting on very well with him, so hopefully he’ll be keen to keep the partnership intact.

Looking forward to Cheltenham

While we’ve been able to work at home, we’ve been trying to get a good gallop into them on an away day. Unfortunately that hasn’t been possible due to the weather this week.

It’s slightly frustrating, but they’ve been running all season and are perfectly fit.

Hopefully if things improve we can get away early next week and give them a nice change of scenery to freshen them up and get them spot on for Cheltenhaml.

Unowhatimeanharry  is well and very much on target to run in the Stayers’. I’m quite happy for him to go there somewhat under the radar.

He’s been written off in the market, but although he faces a stiff task as a 10-year-old, he seems in good order.

Bags Groove is in the Coral Cup  and the Pertemps Final .

He wants better ground, and if conditions are in his favour we’ll look to step him up to three miles for the first time in the Pertemps.

Drumcliff could run in either the novices’ handicap chase on the Tuesday or the Plate on Thursday .

Options for American

It was a shame that we couldn’t run American at Kelso this weekend and we’re hoping that gets rearranged.

If not, there’s an outside chance that he will be supplemented on the Saturday before the Gold Cup if we are sure that conditions would come up soft.

The chances of getting soft ground on the Friday are probably pretty slim, but you’ve got all the snow to melt in, and then the forecast looks unsettled so you never know.

He’s in the Ultima Handicap Chase on the Tuesday and also has an entry in the Midlands National.

It’s unlikely we’d run him off top weight on really bad ground, though, so we’ve got a few options.