The Wonderful Times We Had Together

We were greatly saddened to hear of the passing of David Johnson at the weekend after losing his valiant battle with cancer at the age of 67.  Not only was David a great owner to have in the yard, he was also a loyal friend and confidant.  A self-made, grounded man, David never forgot his roots and always had time for others and was never arrogant or conceited – there were no airs or graces with him and he could communicate with anyone (even Chester, who was a fellow ‘Hammers’ supporter).  A great supporter of our sport of horse racing, the entire industry will be poorer for his loss.

‘DJ’ had enjoyed considerable success as an owner on the flat, winning the Middle Park Stakes in 1986 with Mister Majestic, but his true passion lay with the jumpers and he had his first horse with the team at Pond House when he sent us Beebob in 1991.

His string and success grew from there and we enjoyed countless wonderful wins from such great horses as Challenger du Luc, Lady Cricket, Cyfor Malta, Comply Or Die, Celestial Gold, Well Chief and Our Vic to name but a few.  David had been an owner with us for well over 20 years, winning an incredible six owners’ championships and understood the up’s and down’s of the sport and accepted either with the same good grace.  He enjoyed every success to the fullest, be it a Cheltenham Festival winner or the winner of a minor race – he realised how privileged he was to be a part of a sport he was so passionate about and was truly thankful.

Both myself and my father owe DJ a great debt of gratitude – without him, I would not have trained the winner of the Grand National (2008 hero Comply Or Die), while his support helped my father to countless championships throughout his career.  Champion jockey A P McCoy won plenty of big races for DJ through the years including Arkle Chases aboard Well Chief, Or Royal and Champleve and Paddy Power's aboard the likes of Lady Cricket and Cyfor Malta and he is another who will recall his memory fondly.

He is survived by his lovely wife Shirley and children Lisa (and husband Neil) and Stephen (and wife Clare), all of whom shared in David’s passion for his racing, regularly attending race meetings throughout the season.  That is one of the things we will miss most about him, his infectious enthusiasm and positive view of life.  Farewell to a great man and an even greater friend…

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A memorial service for David Johnson will be held at the Grosvenor Chapel, 24 South Audley Street, London on Friday 19th July starting at midday.  Afterwards there will be a reception at the Four Seasons Hotel, Hamilton Place, Park Lane.  Family flowers only and charitable donations to Cancer Research.

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Earlier last week we had a lovely few days in Deauville for the Arqana Summer Sales, and as was the case at Tattersalls Ireland the week before, we had a most productive time with some lovely new horses to look forward to.  The Arqana Sales have been a happy hunting ground for us in the past with the likes of Dynaste and Grands Crus coming from there and hopefully we can strike lucky again.  This time around we were able to secure a few nice unraced youngsters from good families, while I am delighted that the top lot of the entire sale, Dell’Arca has also joined the Pond House team.  Dell’Arca (pictured right) is a very exciting four year old – a winner on the flat who boasts some excellent form in French hurdles this term, I am sure you will be hearing plenty more of him in the future.

It really is the season for the sales at present and I will be visiting the Tattersalls Sales in Newmarket from Wednesday onward.  With ten new recruits over the last couple of weeks, it might be a case of scraping out the coffers, but we will plough through the catalogues as usual and see if we can find more potential future jumping stars.

It has been a great sporting weekend if you are a patriot – first of all the British Lions produced a fantastic performance to beat the Aussies on their home soil and then Andy Murray became the first British man to win Wimbledon in 77 years…it really does make you very proud to be British.

At last we seem to be enjoying summer and long may it continue.  Temperatures have begun to soar and the good weather is set to continue into next week at least.  It does mean that the ground staff at the racecourses are needing to water the going, but I don’t suppose too many Racegoers will be complaining about that after the miserable start to the year.

As far as I am concerned there are never enough hours in the day and I like to keep busy, but I did take some time out on Sunday evening when I went to a concert at Powderham Castle with Leanne to see Ollie Murs and Lawson.  It was a scorching hot day and we had a lovely time.  Attending concerts is not something I make a habit of doing, but I will be attending another on Thursday when this time I will be going to the Queen’s Gala Concert at Buckingham Palace – I am very excited at the prospect of being one of the privileged few to have the opportunity to attend and I will let you know all about it next week.

We enjoyed a nice winner at Newton Abbot this afternoon when Massannie extended her unbeaten run since joining the Pond House team to three.  She landed the 2m6f mares’ novices’ hurdle by 18 lengths and is clearly a horse of considerable potential for Wayne and Sarah Clifford.  Sarah bred Massannie out of her broodmare Bathwick Annie and she looks to have another good one on her hands here.

Looking to the week ahead we will have only one runner, High Ville at Uttoxeter tomorrow (Tuesday), while we could have a few runners at Worcester on Wednesday.  Meanwhile Investissement is an intended runner on the level at Ascot on Friday.  As usual you can keep up to date with all the latest news from the yard by visiting Chester’s Daily Chat or by following us on Twitter: @DavidPipeRacing