- Monday, 29 April 2013 13:08
- Written by David Pipe
E Street Boy - Final Winner of the Season
Well I can't believe the 2012-13 NH season has come and gone and we are already on the way with the new one!! I thought I would take a brief look back over the past year and pick out a few memorable moments, with more some more in-depth reflections to follow next week. I have to start by saying special congratulations to all the champions, both the new and not so new! The remarkable champion jockey AP won his 18th consecutive title. Poor AP was at Sandown on Saturday after just coming out of hospital and he looked in a fair bit of pain but it was good to see him there. I know he is going to be out of action for a little while longer yet but he is all set to try and make it 19 champion jockey titles. Congratulations to Nicky Henderson for winning the trainers title. He has had a wonderful season and a deserved success after all these years and he truly does have an amazing team of horses and will surely be very hard to beat again this season. A special well done also to Lucy Alexander on winning the conditional jockeys title. She is the first lady rider ever to do so and I have watched her numerous times and she is an extremely talented rider who I am sure will have no trouble in continuing her success as a professional rider.
From a personal perspective I am delighted to have finished third in the trainer table, with 104 winners and £1,142,418 in prize money. My highest finishing position for several years, the second highest total number of winners and it was great to break the million in prize money barrier having come agonizingly close the last two years.
The first winner of the season was Diamonds Return ridden by Conor O'Farrell at Exeter on the 1st May and there was a nice trickle of winners over the summer months. Our first real big day of the season came at Newton Abbots big meeting at the beginning of September when we had a treble. The sadly ill fated Premier Dane won the big hurdle race with AP McCoy in the saddle and Shoegazer won the feature chase for Tom Scu. Our third winner of the day was courtesy of Too Generous in the concluding bumper race to round things off very nicely!
Shoegazer - Newton Abbot
There was a steady flow of winners from then until the Paddy Power meeting at Cheltenham when I couldn't have been happier with how the horses performed. We had four winners and Dynaste showed us a glimpse of what he could do with a scintillating performance on his chasing debut. The amazing Swing Bill won the amateur chase for the second year in a row, with this time Mikey Ennis on board. Our Father and Goulanes put up top performances to make it a few days not to forget.
Dynaste Cheltenham
It was in December that the yard really his flying form with 20 winners coming during the month. Four doubles plus five winners on Boxing day made it a great Christmas to remember. The winners continued to flow in January but February was the hottest month when we recorded 22 winners. March was unfortunately a quieter spell for the yard and that is probably my only disappointment for the season that we did not have a winner the Festival. However, it is the Olympics of our sport and several horses ran very well. It was great to hit back with a winner at Aintree with Dynaste and that was a very special moment and the winners continued to flow in April. The highlight of the final week of the season was of course The Liquidator winning the Champion Bumper at Punchestown. It is amazing to go over to Ireland and win such a top class race, a Grade 1 contest. It was also brilliant for his owner Roger Brookhouse who has been a greater supporter of mine and of racing in general. He is out of a mare we used to have at Pond House called Alikat. He ran very well at the Festival in the Bumper to finish fourth and it was nice he could win a 'big one' for himself as we have always held him in high regard. He will make a smashing hurdler next season. Our final winner of the season was E Street Boy at Plumpton ridden by Kieron Edgar, number 104, on Friday evening. I also had one winner on the flat, Purple 'N Gold with Jim Crowley on board at Kempton.
All in all it has been a very good season for Pond House. As I mentioned earlier I will have a greater look back and pick out some key performances next week but I know we have some lovely young horses to look forward to next winter. For now though I would love some nice warm sunshine so we could turn the horses out and they could enjoy their summer holiday!
I had two runners on the first day of the new jumps season yesterday and Midnight Tuesday ran okay at Ludlow and it was great to see Junior bounce back to form at Huntingdon. He had to give over a stone to all his rivals and he ran very well to finish second. He is likely to be kept on the go for now and may have an entry or two on the flat at some point.
Looking ahead to this week, I have three runners at Worcester tomorrow evening, El Lobo, Barney Cool and Military Precision. Tom Scu goes here to ride all three and it’s great to have him back in action after missing all of last week through injury. I also have four runners at Exeter tomorrow evening. Prime Location, Problema Tic, Palace Jester and High Ville. I am likely to have a few runners here and there for the rest of the week but for all the news keep up to date with Chester’s Daily chat.
In other news, Mikey Ennis has been out in America over the weekend to ride in the Maryland Hunt Cup, riding for former Grand National winning jockey Charlie Fenwick. He had a great spin and finished fifth the race and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I also have another update on the riding front. Head Lad's son Kieren Buckley finished second in a local point to point near Seaton yesterday. He was riding Vertige Dore and this was only his fourth ride and he rode a nice race and is sure to be winning very soon!
There is still lots going on back at the yard at the moment and while things will star to get quieter in the coming weeks we are also looking forward to having a little end of season party for all the staff very soon. I would like to say a special thank you to all of them, all my owners, horses, family and supporters for making it such a successful season. I couldn't do it without them, for which I am very grateful and so here's to the next one!!
