By Jenny Cheshire - Worcester Racecourse.

THERE are plenty of plans you can put in place to achieve a successful raceday.

The one aspect over which you will never have control and which can alter the dimensions of the day, is the weather.

A good example of this resulted in a number of non-runners at last week’s Worcester meeting, when the forecast heavy rain completely bypassed the course.

The drying conditions suited some horses but not all. One trainer who was delighted with the good-to-firm going was locally-based handler Robin Dickin.

The in-form Alcester trainer sent Myroundoryours, who had never previously been placed in his races, to win his first attempt over fences under Charlie Poste.

According to Dickin, the horse is not easy to train and came to Worcester on the back of a training regime including three 10-minute canters a day, rather than any fast gallop work.

Different tactics on the day, with the horse leading from the front rather than being held up as previously, also contributed to his success.

At this early point of the new National Hunt season, champion Richard Johnson already leads the jockeys’ table ahead of Sam Twiston-Davies and Aidan Coleman.

Johnson began the defence of his Worcester title with a win last week on Castlemorris King.

The gelding saw off the challenges of the previous week’s winner, Fountains Blossom, to get his nose in front by five lengths.

The Grand Stand Road course will crown Worcester’s leading owner/s at the end of the season.

Thoonavolla, trained at Hindlip by Tom Weston, is now two wins from two meetings at the course, lifting Troubled Pink Partnership to the top of the owners’ table.

Lady jockey Paige Fuller showed her strength in the saddle against her male counterparts at Pitchcroft, when steering her mother’s-owned Carrigkerry to victory in the handicap hurdle. It was the horse’s first run for trainer, Jamie Snowden.

The nine-year-old, who was bought as an unraced five-year-old by the Fuller family, had solid form in his previous runs in point-to-points and hunter chases, the most recent of which was a second place at Newton Abbott to subsequent winner, Maxi Chop.

Hunter chasing will dominate proceedings on Friday, when the opening race will be the annual Hargreave Hale Hunter Chase for horses who have current season Hunters’ Certificates with one of the West Midlands Area hunts.

Twenty eight entries for the race should determine a competitive field for the curtain-raiser of what promises to be an exciting night at Pitchcroft (gates open 3.50pm).