Weather leaves National Hunt trainers in a fair old pickle

For years, during the so-called boom times, when some people clearly had far more money than sense, balloting was the curse of the trainer.

But the balloting has eased considerably, with owners disappearing from the game, and over the Christmas period it hardly reared it’s ugly head at all.

Most handlers are well down on numbers, but at least are now guaranteed a run for those they have left.