NORMALLY I'm as liberal and forward-looking as anyone else hailing from Little Moscow, as my home area was known. But in one respect I'm a staunch conservative (with a small c).
Forget this all-weather stuff, hang the jumps and all their attendant miseries, because I'm just a plain old-fashioned punter at heart and today is really my day after Ne'erday.
The start of the Flat season on God's good turf is a chance to cast
off the shackles of jump-induced penury and breathe again at the prospect of a day's racing in which the selected nags will at least stay vertical, mostly.
Especially on a weekend as cold as this one has so far been, the prospect of a spring evening's racing at Hamilton Park has me salivating. It's a time for making new resolutions and sticking to them – like not betting on anything that the trainer and jockey has tipped, which is a surefire way to the debtors' court.
If I had a New Year plea to racing's authorities at the start of the season it would not be about selling the Tote to a racing trust, or allocating more fixtures to Scotland – both should happen as a matter of sense – but on something as simple as starting a race.
Yet again last week we saw an example of the ludicrous nature of the "under orders" rule, in which a horse comes under starter's orders and is therefore deemed to have started the race, and all bets on it stand – even though the horse doesn't even cross the starting line!
In this latest case, Offemont, a 13-2 shot in the Racing UK Amateur Riders Handicap Hurdle at Warwick on Tuesday, came under orders but planted its feet short of the starting rope. Anyone who backed him did not even get one metre of a run for their money.
It will happen again this Flat season, with horses being left in the starting stalls. The rule should surely be that a horse is deemed to have started when it has actually started, ie at least gone a few yards. Otherwise it's legalised robbery, pure and simple.
But let's get back to the Flat. Please note that today's racing at Musselburgh is subject to the course passing a precautionary inspection at 7am. General manager Bill Farnsworth thought it prudent to keep people informed as snow is forecast overnight.
Farnsworth said: "I was a bit reluctant to call the inspection really, but we have been forecast between one and five centimetres of snow. There's a chance it could be sleet, but there is a good chance we'll get at least some snow.
"The forecasters have also said there will be winds tomorrow and there should be some sunny spells, so they are fairly confident any snow should have disappeared by midday. The top and bottom of it is that we're very hopeful."
Plumpton's fixture is also subject to the course passing an inspection at 7.30am. The track was raceable yesterday, with the going described as heavy, but any further significant rainfall overnight might well have put the meeting in doubt.
If Musselburgh goes ahead, I have a sneaking suspicion that Los Nadis will do well in the totesport.com Musselburgh Gold Cup at 4.30. He's fit from the jumps, loves the course, and Midlothian trainer Peter Monteith will have him tuned up perfectly for the big race at his local track.
There's still plenty of jumps racing left, and a run of big events starts with the Powers Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse tomorrow. The main news yesterday centred on the late withdrawal of the much-fancied Pomme Tiepy.
Ruby Walsh will now switch to another of Willie Mullins' horses, Alexander Taipan, but I think he will again have to settle for second behind Cailin Alainn, the improving mare. She beat Alexander Taipan last time out over a distance some way short of her best and she should stay the full three miles and five furlongs of the Fairyhouse marathon.
Beef or Salmon attempts to take his winnings past the £1m mark, but at the age of 12 and with a surely impossible burden of 12 stones to carry, I think Michael Hourigan's star will do well to complete the race.
Next week, I'll be going over my Grand National system again. Last year some people won money using it – even me. Wonders never cease.
The full article contains 748 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
