It may be freezing but free tickets are up for grabs!

At the time of writing Musselburgh is the only turf card left standing; earlier today the track made 1,000 tickets available free of charge for its Scottish Cheltenham Trials meeting.. Should racing go ahead, I'll closely watch the progress of John Ferguson's three runners (Creekside in the Scottish Triumph Hurdle at 2.05, Cry Of Freedom in the Scottish County Hurdle at 3.45 and Cape Dutch in the finale at 4.50) - the trainer has an impressive 37.5% win strike rate this season - 18 wins from 48 runs.

Newbury's Super Saturday card was called off this morning but has has been re-arranged for next Friday with sponsors Betfair offering free entry for all racegoers.

Meanwhile Nicky Henderson is considering sending Binocular north for Kelso's Morebattle Hurdle on Wednesday. I'm sure the trainer doesn't hold particularly fond memories of the race - two years ago Zaynar was beaten at odds of 1/14f by the Howard Johnson trained Quwetwo on quite desperate ground.

Let's hope there's some slightly warmer weather in the offing over the next few days.

Free tickets to the races

Thanks to a couple of my colleagues for pointing out that John Smith's are currently running a BOGOF offer to selected race meetings between now and December; an impressive total of thirty nine racecourses are taking part in the promotion. In order to claim tickets, you are required to fill in a questionnaire but this looks a decent offer to me. In fact, forget trying to pick winners, try this little money making idea instead...

1. Identify local race meeting participating in John Smith's promotion

2. Arrange a trip to that meeting for friends / colleagues

3. Purchase the tickets
4. Sell tickets to unsuspecting friends / colleagues at face value

5. Enjoy proceeds.