It has been incredibly quiet for me of late as the ground is terrible and it means that I am not able to get the horses out that I want to, both over jumps and on the flat.

THE Christmas festival at Leopardstown was launched on Tuesday and it really is an event you look forward to.

YOU can say you’re into the national hunt season proper when you get to October, although it looks like Down Royal at the beginning of November will be when Bostons Angel, Oscars Well and Saludos will make their seasonal reappearances.

IT wasn’t a very busy week for us on the track and the weekend ahead mirrors that in what is a rare lull before we’re back into top gear during the week at Killarney and Leopardstown. At the same time, we’ll be preparing for some top class Curragh action of which I hope Laughing Lashes and Pathfork can be a major part.

THE horses continue to run well, which is very pleasing ahead of another big week for us and for Irish racing.

GIMLI’S ROCK proved a facile winner of the Grade 2 WKD Core Hurdle at Down Royal yesterday, highlight of a spectacular treble for trainer Jessica Harrington, also successful with the Robert Power-ridden pair Bostons Angel and Saville Row.

YESTERDAY’S journey north to Down Royal was certainly worthwhile and any day you have a treble is a very good one.

Gimli's Rock put up a solid performance to outpoint his rivals in the WKD Core Hurdle at Down Royal and star in a near 420-1 treble for Jessica Harrington today.

The yard is a hive of activity right now as we make the transition from a summer yard to a winter one.

The progressive Emulous crowned a superb weekend for millionaire owner Khalid Abdullah when outclassing her rivals in the listed Garnet Stakes at Naas yesterday.

It was a quiet week on the track with just five runners before yesterday but we had a good winner out of that and it will be anything but quiet for the next seven days, starting with Pathfork’s appearance in the boylesports.com Vincent O’Brien National Stakes at The Curragh today.

RUBY’S back!

I was absolutely thrilled with No One Tells Me’s run in the Galway Hurdle on Thursday. She really ran an absolute cracker to be fifth in what I think was a great race.

GIVEN the fantastic safety record that horse racing has nowadays, it is easy to forget that this can be a dangerous occupation.

JERED advertised his Smurfit Champion Hurdle credentials when outpointing Cork All Star in the Grade 3 Anglo Irish Bank Hurdle at Down Royal yesterday.

NOEL MEADE’S Mac Three - he will be partnered by Paul Carberry returning from injury - should relish the three miles of the Cameron Willis Maiden Hurdle at Kilbeggan this evening and gets the nap.

JOHNNY DEPP was a surprise lead actor winner at the Screen Actors Guild Awards in Los Angeles for Pirates of the Caribbean, while Charlize Theron took the best-actress honour for the serial-killer drama Monster.

The trailer for the long-anticipated second Lord Of The Rings chapter, The Two Towers, will premiere on America Online next Monday.

The voice of Orson Welles is being used to narrate a new TV series.

Lord Of The Rings director Peter Jackson's children have started forgetting what he looks like.