- Monday, 14 January 2013 16:01
- Written by David Pipe
The original plan had been to make the running with our four year old gelding and thus I was a little bit concerned when he missed the break and took a bit of barging at the start. Even so, jockey Jim Crowley never panicked and quickly had him in midfield and producing him with a smart turn of foot on the home bend he won nicely. He will return to the track this Sunday when he will be competing over a furlong further – I don’t think the distance will be an issue and Jim Crowley will be on board again so hopefully he can follow-up. He will go hurdling at some point and should be well up to winning over timber – he was bought out of a claimer for only £8,000 and is already looking like a shrewd purchase.
Just when I think that the weather cannot change for the worse, it does! It was only a couple of weeks ago that I tweeted that 2012 was the wettest year at Pond House this century. Well, now it is getting cold too! Temperatures dipped below freezing last night and there was a dusting of snow in the vicinity (although we managed to escape it on this occasion, unlike some other areas further up country). Even so, the forecast is for it to get much worse for the remainder of the week and I am sure there are one or two racecourses getting anxious ahead of their fixtures. Not least I would imagine would be my local track Taunton who are looking forward to hosting their biggest fixture in their 85 year history on Saturday. They have done very well to put up prize money in excess of £115,000 so deserve to be rewarded with a great day’s racing and good numbers through the turnstiles, not with snowdrifts! We have made plenty of entries for the fixture and I would envisage several runners, weather permitting of course.
Whatever the weather has in store for us, we are pretty well equipped to deal with the elements here at Pond House. We have our fabulous all-weather gallops that have produced nearly 5,000 winners, as well as ground sheets, snow blowers and tractor driven rakes to keep them operational during the most arduous of conditions. We also have the benefit of an indoor canter meaning that unlike some of the racecourses, we can keep going whatever the weather!
Looking further forward, it is that time of the year when the big races at the Cheltenham Festival begin closing. Last week we entered Grands Crus and Junior in the Gold Cup as well as Grands Crus and Zaynar in the Ryanair Chase. Tomorrow (Tuesday) the entries close for the big hurdles and we will be entering Grands Crus and Dynaste (pictured right) in the World Hurdle as well as Flying Cross in the Champion Hurdle.
With Big Buck’s an absentee it has thrown the World Hurdle wide-open and while Grands Crus and Dynaste will hold preferred engagements over fences, it would be foolish not to give them an entry and at least see what the likely opposition will be…afterall, if you are not in it, you can’t win it.
Grands Crus continues to please me at home and while he was fit enough to do himself justice; he has improved again since his fine third in the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day. The ground that day was very testing and I am sure that he will be seen to even better effect on a sounder surface, something we should have come March.
Meanwhile Dynaste who has made such an impressive start to his chasing career is also very well at present. The plan with him is to go back to Newbury (scene of his second chase success) on 9th February for a novices' chase before taking in the Cheltenham Festival.
Flying Cross is something of a dark horse having joined us from the flat where he showed some very good form, including a third in the 2010 Irish St Leger (Group One). He has suffered from leg trouble in the interim but has a touch of class and will be entered in the Champion Hurdle as well as the Neptune Investment Hurdle at the Festival. He could have one run before then or could go straight to Cheltenham.
As I write this I can hardly believe that there are only 57 days left before the beginning of the greatest jumps meeting on the calendar…exciting times indeed!
