Skiing accident is snow joke as Philip Hobbs injures shoulder

As if he did not have enough to worry about, what with his horsebox diverted by a motorway accident and Newbury shrouded in fog, Philip Hobbs was yesterday masterminding his 120-strong team in Somerset with one good arm. The shoulder weakness that afflicted his riding career had re-emerged in mortifying fashion on the ski slopes of Val d'Isère.
It happened last Friday, just as Hobbs and his good friend, Nigel Twiston-Davies, were congratulating each other for completing a particularly hazardous black run. “I'd done the hard bit and must have been travelling at all of four miles an hour when I tripped over the end of a ski,” he confessed. “Very painful and inconvenient.”
Hobbs spent 24 hours in an Alpine hospital, which was not quite his intention when he escaped the British freeze-up for an impromptu break. He said: “My left shoulder is dislocated and has a minor chipped bone. I must have dislocated the same one five or six times when I was riding but the last time was 25 years ago.”
Confined to barracks, Hobbs saw some Cheltenham hopes encounter mixed fortunes at Newbury. Planet Of Sound won again and is a probable for the Grand Annual Chase but Cockney Trucker was put in his place by the gargantuan Mad Max.
Hobbs is hoping to be back on racecourse duty at Haydock on Saturday, when Snap Tie will bid to enhance his Champion Hurdle credentials if the ground does not deteriorate. Meantime, he is predictably receiving no sympathy from Twiston-Davies, who stayed on the slopes for three more days.
For Twiston-Davies, though, the holiday was a fleeting respite from battling whatever ailment has restricted his horses to one winner since late November. Back home last night, he hopes for a lift at Ludlow today, when his elder son Sam takes his first ride under Rules on the hurdler On Spec.
The Dubai Carnival begins today with the first of 11 meetings climaxing in the World Cup on March 28. No expense spared in this land of fantasy, though apparently even the sheikhs occasionally have trouble with building projects.
Last week saw a brief hitch in the starry development of Meydan racecourse, which will replace Nad Al Sheba next year. Deadlines were being missed, so the construction contract - worth a cool £890 million - was summarily cancelled. Doubtless, things are now in new hands and right back on track but, in these straitened times back home, it was just a tad reassuring.
Two years ago, the paparazzi descended on Cheltenham and captured the last public appearance of Prince William and Kate Middleton before their romance temporarily hit the rocks. Last March, the cameras were trained on Zara Phillips and her rugby-playing boyfriend Mike Tindall, who was arrested the following morning on a drink-driving charge that has cost him his licence for three years.
It all helps Cheltenham get into the celeb magazines, of course, but the racecourse executive may be hoping for a Festival free of royal scandal this time - the Queen is expected to attend for the first time in several years.
David Johnson, the champion jumps owner, is blunt about racing's vulnerability to the economy. He says: “A lot of owners are taking the same route as me and cutting back sharply. Plenty I know have gone out of the game completely. Bread-and-butter jumps owners are passionate people but they will struggle. There will be less horses about, less jobs for stable staff - and 2009 will be worse than 2008.”
Such unalloyed words will alarm an already jittery bloodstock industry. The latest distressing indicators came from Ireland this week, where the annual figures showed bloodstock auction sales had dropped 43 per cent, year on year.