We bid farewell to the 2017-18 jumps season at Sandown last week – and so wet was last winter that not too many tears were shed at Barbury.

The weather was so depressing, and we had fewer runners last season than we have done for the past 13 years, with the word ‘soft’ seemingly appearing in every going report since Paddy Power day at Cheltenham last November.

The high was Sceau Royal winning his Grade 1 at Sandown and the low having to say farewell to the evergreen Smad Place, who is now enjoying retirement with PA Charlotte Burke.

However, despite the shortage of runners, we still managed to reach just short of £1m in prize money for our owners, so it was not all doom and gloom.

Now we can look forward to the Flat season, for which we have around 50 horses primed – my biggest ever team – and with the likes of Who Dares Wins, Scarlet Dragon, Nathan, Coeur de Lion and Redicean, there are plenty of reasons for optimism this summer. That is if we get any summer!

Enjoy your racing, and here’s hoping for a stream of winners.

Alan