A week later than intended and in Cheltenham, rather than Ascot, Un De Sceaux gets his chance in the Clarence House Chase. The change of venue doesn’t really make any difference to him, the biggest difference to the race is that it’s a £70,000 race, and it would have been a £150,000 race had it been run last week.

It’s a complicated situation, with many permutations, but the long and the short of it is I don’t know for certain where I’ll be riding today.

After a quiet week, it’s a quiet return for me, with just one ride at this afternoon’s meeting in Cork. Chateau Conti is the one, and I’m hopeful he can make the trip south worthwhile.

I’ve ridden in a lot of King Georges but I don’t remember riding in one with such a small field.

The Christmas festivals are on the horizon but there’s plenty of good racing this weekend, and I’m really looking forward to riding Yorkhill on his chasing debut in the two-mile beginners’ race at Fairyhouse this afternoon.

Much as I would love to ride Douvan in the Hilly Way Chase in Cork tomorrow, I can’t be in two places at once, and so I’ll be in Punchestown to ride Djakadam in the John Durkan Memorial. It’s a Grade 1 race, the biggest race of the day, and that’s the reason I’m going there.

The National Hunt season is hitting full stride now, and thus this is a good weekend for us to begin to unwrap some of our best young horses of last season.