A Terrific Ton!

It’s been a couple of weeks of high achievements – the week before last we were celebrating breaking through the £1million prize money barrier for the season and last week we scored our 100^th winner of the current season with Western Warhorse (pictured above), and with a couple of weeks of the season remaining, there is still time to enhance those totals yet further. While 100 winners and £1million in prize money are not the be-all and end-all and do not define whether the season is considered a success or not, they are nonetheless nice landmarks to achieve.

Of course, we are always looking to strengthen our squad of horses and improve our totals year on year. Indeed, in a season where plenty of meetings have been abandoned due to unpredictable and adverse weather conditions, I am pleased to see our stats holding up well.

Talking of improving our team, I will be at the Brightwells sale at Cheltenham on Wednesday after racing looking for the next potential superstar. As always, there appears to be an excellent consignment and I have already been through the auction catalogue numerous times – if you would like to join the ownership ranks, then please do feel free to contact me for a no obligation chat about your requirements.

It was in fact a couple of our newer recruits that took us past 100 winners this term. On Thursday Seven Nation Army made a winning debut for the yard with a convincing success in the bumper at Fontwell under Tom Scudamore. He had previously shown a decent level of form in finishing third in a similar contest at Naas when trained in Ireland and is yet another nice young horse that we have to look forward to. He was our eighteenth bumper winner of the campaign and when you consider that makes up exactly half of the successes that we have enjoyed in National Hunt flat races over the last five seasons, you can see why we are excited about the young crop of horses coming through.

Western Warhorse was a ready winner of the National Hunt novices’ hurdle at Chepstow on Friday and like Seven Nation Army, he is owned by Roger Brookhouse, who therefore owned our 99^th and 100^th winner of the season. Western Warhorse had come to grief early on his debut for the stable at Ffos Las but put that behind him with an authoritative success from a previous winner. He is a thorough stayer and will make a lovely long distance chaser in time. Both he and Seven Nation Army will now go on their summer holidays.

It should be an exciting week of jumps racing with action from Cheltenham on Wednesday and Thursday, while the Scottish Grand National meeting at Ayr takes place on Friday and Saturday. This morning (Monday) we confirmed both Dan Breen and Shotavodka for the Scottish Champion Hurdle as well as Problema Tic (pictured right, nearside) and Midlands National winner Big Occasion for the Scottish Grand National.

The ground at Ayr is currently soft which will suit Big Occasion – indeed, the softer the ground the better for our six year old and part-owner Josh Apiafi, who paid us a visit last week has been doing a rather interesting looking rain dance over the past few days! With Grand National winner Auroras Encore at the head of the weights our pair both will have nice racing weights of just under 11 stone to carry for the marathon contest.

I am pleased to report that Tom Bellamy is in good form following his bad fall at Taunton. ‘Bells’ was successfully operated on the day after his fall and he has gone home to recuperate – unlike me he has the advantage of youth on his side and that is always a help when recovering from such injuries.

Another who could be in hospital come this weekend is Charlotte Scudamore! ‘Lottie’ (Tom Scu’s better half) has somewhat foolishly agreed to compete in this weekend’s London Marathon where she will be raising money for the excellent charity Children’s Hospice South West. She has been pleasing at home and is believed to be straight enough to do herself justice on this first outing for sometime! In all seriousness though, if you would like to help Charlotte raise money for her most worthy charity, you can find out more by visiting her Just Giving webpage at www.justgiving.com/charlotte-scudamore. We will let you know how she got on next week.

For all other news from the yard, including latest running plans visit Chester’s Chat or follow us on Twitter @DavidPipeRacing.