- Monday, 17 October 2022 15:16
- Written by David Pipe
The first Cheltenham meeting of the new season is just around the corner and that can mean only one thing…it is stable tours time again! Over the last few weeks, I have been busy conducting interviews and answering questions for various podcasts and publications with a view to the core part of the campaign, whilst we have been compiling our own popular series of horses to follow videos with some of the personalities at Pond House.
- Monday, 10 October 2022 15:02
- Written by David Pipe
There was desperately sad news last week when Adagio collapsed and died on the gallops after suffering a heart attack on Thursday morning as he was completing his preparation for Saturday’s Cesarewitch handicap at Newmarket. It is devastating to lose any horse - you get to know their personalities and traits when you see them every day and to not have them pop their heads over the door to greet you is very difficult. It is harder still to lose a horse of such rare ability – a real standard-bearer for Pond House, horses such as him simply do not come along very often and he leaves a huge void.
- Monday, 03 October 2022 15:38
- Written by David Pipe
The month of September was certainly a wet one with 73.5mm of precipitation, making it the fourth wettest September since we started recording the rainfall back in 2001. I am sure that will have been the case for much of the remainder of the country, although it has not been enough to save the forthcoming jumps cards at Ludlow on Wednesday and Exeter on Thursday, where the ground is too firm for NH purposes. With only 496mm of rain so far this year, that is the lowest ongoing total since 2011 and with only a few showers in the forecast over the coming week, that doesn’t appear likely to alter dramatically anytime soon.
- Monday, 26 September 2022 14:28
- Written by David Pipe
It’s been an eventful week and before I go any further, I have to make reference to my son, Jack’s fantastic haul at the weekend. He went fishing to a carp lake in Hemyock and whilst he was there, he caught his biggest ever fish…a 10.9lbs carp! It took all of his strength to reel it in and land it, but he was helped by a very kind gentleman who was angling nearby. You can see how proud Jack is from the picture – he loves sport of all kinds and this will only serve to encourage him further.
- Monday, 19 September 2022 09:53
- Written by David Pipe
Last week marked the second manifestation of National Racehorse Week – an initiative introduced to broaden the public’s knowledge of the care and attention that our beloved friend, the racehorse receives away from the track and we opened the doors to Pond House for in excess of 150 visitors.
- Monday, 12 September 2022 14:41
- Written by David Pipe
Last week racing lost its greatest patron with the very sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It is well known that the Queen had long adored her horses and her staunch support of the industry will be impossible to replace. Not only was she a keen racegoer, first attending Royal Ascot in 1946 and every year until finally unable this year, she was a very shrewd breeder, whilst her colours were carried to many a famous victory on the flat and over jumps. Things will never be the same again and the world as well as the entire racing community will continue to mourn her loss.
- Monday, 05 September 2022 15:19
- Written by David Pipe
The stable continues in good form and from our seven runners last week, we notched another winner with El Paso Wood’s success at Stratford taking our tally at this early part of the season to 25, whilst all of our other runners filled the frame.
