Kempton Park is the focus of the weekend, as it has been all week following the news that the racecourse could close come 2021.

A lot has been written and said about it, and I won’t go into the detail of it as I am sure everyone is aware of the plans.

From a purely personal point of view I have enjoyed some success at Kempton so perhaps I’m biased, but I always like riding there; it produces fast and exciting racing and puts a real emphasis on quick, clean jumping.

As I understand it, there is a lot of red tape to go through and four years is a long way off.

There have been some very angry comments and objections to the plans but who knows where we’ll all be in 2021 and it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

The feature race today is the 32Red Lanzarote Handicap Hurdle, for which I am on the likely favourite, Doesyourdogbite.

He’s been star for us this season in winning all three of his hurdles. I wouldn’t say he’s surprised us but at the same time we weren’t necessarily expecting him to do what he’s done.

On his debut, the two market leaders ran out and unseated, so we thought he might have been fortunate and then he followed up at 25-1. He built on that when winning impressively over the course and distance last time. He had good form on the Flat so we always knew he had a fair bit of ability but weren’t sure as to how much.

He’s been put up 6lb by the handicapper, which seems very fair, and the ground should be fine, so he ticks all the boxes. You need to take advantage of these winning runs, as it will come to an end at some stage, but fingers crossed it won’t be on Saturday.

Of my other rides, Silvergrove should be a contender in the 32Red.com Handicap Chase. He was third in the Kim Muir at the Cheltenham Festival and that form should give him a chance and his trainer Ben Pauling was on the mark with High Bridge on Thursday, a horse I rode for John Ferguson last year.

I can’t tell you anything about Mr Love, whose only run has come in an Irish point-to-point, but I did ride New Member over the course and distance last month.

He was beaten just over a length into fourth in a decent enough handicap hurdle and looks like he’s still progressing. Again, a repeat of that should see him run well in the 32Red.com Handicap Hurdle.

Finally, I was delighted to win on Pete The Feat in the valuable 32Red Veterans’ Handicap Chase at Sandown. He is 13 and was the joint-oldest in the field but enjoyed racing off a light weight and showed all his old zest. It’s a great series to have and to have a final worth £100,000 was fantastic.

What I would say on the prize-money is that it’s a shame other races, particularly some of the Grade One races, don’t offer similar levels of prize-money. I am not saying that a veterans final does not deserve to have six figures worth of prize-money as I think they do. I am a real fan of the series and the public seem to love the races, so all credit to Sandown and 32Red, but I do think there is something slightly incongruous that some of the Grade One races will be nowhere near that level of prizemoney.

  • Aidan is sponsored by Racing UK, and new and reinstating customers can enjoy the channel for the next four months for just £10 a month (better than half price). That covers the rest of the Jumps season and includes the entire Cheltenham Festival.
  • For more, visit www.racinguk.com/januarysale