Dynaste Tops Great Aintree

What an exciting week, culminating in a thoroughly enjoyable Grand National at Aintree on Saturday.  The stable has been in good form as we enjoyed successes at Exeter on Tuesday with Bygones Sovereign, Aintree on Friday with Dynaste (pictured above courtesy of our pilot John Darby) and Chepstow on Saturday with Oddjob, not to forget War Singer landing the Aintree Legends charity race on Grand National day.  Meanwhile Swing Bill performed with enormous credit in the big race itself and we managed to break through the £1 million prize money barrier for the season.

Following on from the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals, this is the time of year that things start to wind down a little.  We will begin thinking about turning some of the horses out for their summer holidays, although it would be nice if there was a little more warmth to go with the recent drier weather.  Still, I don’t suppose you can have everything and things could be far worse as I noticed when flying up to Aintree last week – indeed, there are still plenty of parts of Wales that are covered in snow!

It was certainly a week of up’s and down’s for our conditional jockey Tom Bellamy.  Tom was in the saddle when producing an enterprising ride to score from the front aboard Bygones Sovereign at Exeter on Tuesday, but was bought firmly back down to earth when parting company with the Alan Jones trained Emerald Glade as his mount ran out at the last at Taunton on Thursday with the race at his mercy.  Poor Tom broke his right femur in the incident and was operated on at Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton on Friday before being released on Saturday.  He faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines recuperating and we all hope that the process goes smoothly and quickly.

I was delighted with the success of Dynaste at Aintree as he returned to winning ways with success in the Mildmay Novices’ Chase on Friday under Tom Scudamore.  Ridden with the utmost confidence he arrived on the scene between the last two fences and quickly put the race to bed with a spring-heeled leap at the last to come comfortably away from Third Intention.  Although he is in at the Punchestown Festival that will most likely be enough for him for this season.  He is a tremendously exciting horse to have in the yard and next season he could be aimed at top races such as the Paddy Power at Cheltenham in November and the King George VI Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day, with Haydock’s Betfair Chase being his probably starting point.

Saturday was certainly a good day for the stable with the success of War Singer under Tony Dobbin in the 1m5f Aintree Legends Charity Race.  Although this victory does not count in our final tally at the end of the season it was a privilege to be involved and help to raise funds for the wonderful Bob Champion Cancer Trust.

Meanwhile over at Chepstow Oddjob (pictured right) was showing improved form in landing the staying handicap chase under Andrew Glassonbury.  Although only a 0-95 contest, it was very competitive with fourteen runners in the field but our charge was able to run out a ready winner and he seems to have improved for this better ground.   He is still only very lightly raced for a nine year old and could have further improvement in him.  He will go up in the weights for this, but now that he has managed to get his head in front hopefully he can continue to progress.

For a second consecutive year Swing Bill provided Conor O’Farrell with the thrill of a lifetime in the Grand National.  Enduring a clear run throughout towards the head of affairs, the pair were able to go four places better than last year in finishing a highly creditable sixth behind Auroras Encore.  ‘Bill’ is twelve years of age now, but retains all of his enthusiasm and his experience shone through over these still daunting National fences.  Going down the inside at Bechers on both circuits, he never so much as pecked and put in a faultless round of jumping under his young jockey.  It amazes me that while Bill has been for sale prior to the last couple of Grand National’s nobody has taken the chance to purchase him… it is not everyday that you get the chance to buy a runner in the big race and he has collected prize money at both attempts – an amazing opportunity missed for any prospective owners.

All concerned with the big race should be congratulated on a job well done.  It is great that all horses returned safe following the work that has gone into making the race safer – Aintree have worked tirelessly to improve safety along with David Muir of the RSPCA while the new Easyfix fences must be considered a success.   There was a fantastic cheer from the crowd after all of the runners cleared Bechers’ Brook on the first circuit.

Our successes during the course of the past week have meant that we have consolidated our third position in the trainers’ table while also breaking through the £1miilion prize money barrier.  Having narrowly missed this target by less than £4,000 in each of the last two seasons, it is nice to surpass that total with three weeks of the season still remaining.  There is still plenty of prize money to compete for with the Scottish Grand National at Ayr to come in less than a fortnight and we could be represented there by Problema Tic who ran well to finish fourth in a competitive handicap chase at Aintree on Saturday, while Midlands National winner Big Occasion could bid to supplement that success although softer ground would be preferable.

It looks like being a quiet start to this week with our next jumpers not coming before Thursday.  For all the latest news from the yard and details of our runners visit Chester’s Daily Chat or follow us on Twitter @DavidPipeRacing.