The Season Ahead

Although only a quiet week on the racing front it was nevertheless an eventful one with visitors aplenty.  Terry Neill joined us on Wednesday to see his ex-French charge Wetak and we took the opportunity to grab a few words with him for the website as we were also hosting renowned SIS broadcaster Mike Vince.  Indeed, Mike was kept very busy on Wednesday, interviewing me and my father for our thoughts on the season ahead as well as chatting with a number of other members of staff around the stable with a view to getting their horses to follow.

Although only a quiet week on the racing front it was nevertheless an eventful one with visitors aplenty.  Terry Neill joined us on Wednesday to see his ex-French charge Wetak and we took the opportunity to grab a few words with him for the website as we were also hosting renowned SIS broadcaster Mike Vince.  Indeed, Mike was kept very busy on Wednesday, interviewing me and my father for our thoughts on the season ahead as well as chatting with a number of other members of staff around the stable with a view to getting their horses to follow.

We will be bringing you those interviews over the coming weeks, but will start off here with part one of an interview that I conducted with Mike with a brief look at the season ahead…

David Pipe Interview with Mike Vince

We were joined on Saturday by Professor Caroline Tisdall, Richard and Sally Wilkin, Roger and Nicola Stanley, Paul and Claire Reynolds and John Gent who enjoyed a brief look around the stables before seeing their horses (including the likes of Vieux Lion Rouge and Grands Crus) in action on the gallops.

Welsh Rugby International Andy Powell came down on Friday night, so we were out in the evening.  He was keen to see his exciting second season hurdler Broadway Buffalo.   Andy had played a tough match for Wigan Warriors against Leeds Rhinos on Thursday night – not that you would have known it to look at him…I certainly wish I was that fit!

While we are on the subject of owners, I should also give a favourable mention to Bryan Drew who owns or part owns a number of nice horses in the yard including Prideofthecastle, Kings Palace and Vazaro Delafayette.  Bryan recently took to a saddle of a different kind (bicycle) to ride from London to Paris in aid of the Stroke Association.  As you can see from the picture of Bryan with his son Harry (left) they made it in one piece…by the way, as you can tell by Harry’s top – you either love him or hate him!  Bryan has his own Just Giving page if you would like to contribute to this most worthy charity: http://www.justgiving.com/owner-email/pleasesponsor/BRYAN-DREW1

Another who is currently fund raising is former flat jockey Willie Supple.  Willie, who is probably more famous for being the brother of local legend Gerry rather than as big race winning flat jockey in his former role as number two retained rider to Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum, takes part in the excellent Leger Legends race at Doncaster on Saturday.  The race always attracts some top racing names from across the generations and this year will be no exception – Willie will be raising money for the Injured Jockeys’ Fund and is another with his own Just Giving page: http://www.justgiving.com/Willie-Supple

Back to the Pond House horses – our only runner last week, The Tracey Shuffle was something of a disappointing favourite at Fontwell on Sunday.  Under conditions that should have suited, he faded quite tamely before the final flight to finish fourth.

Tomorrow we have one runner at Worcester, Vapiano who goes in the brush hurdle handicap and he will be ridden by Tom Scudamore.  We will be doing our best but I suspect that he is going to be a very difficult horse to place.  Rated 102 over hurdles, the balance of his form would suggest that even this sort of mark is optimistic, however owing to one (admittedly improved) run over fences he has a chase mark of 125.  He has done nothing before or since over hurdles to suggest that a rating as lofty as that is justified.  I would love to run him over fences but a disparity of 23lbs between codes is absolutely absurd and forces our hand somewhat.

We have a few entries at Uttoxeter on Wednesday and Bangor on Friday, but on the whole it looks like being a quite week.  Next week was scheduled to be another week long break from jumping, although the inclusion of a replacement jumps meeting at Stratford on Tuesday means it is not a complete void.  I have been quite vociferous about the stop-start nature of the summer jumps fixtures – a couple of individual weeks without racing a month apart is no good to anyone.  Also, as far as I can tell, if you are going to have a week without jumps racing why not stick to it?  The addition of the Stratford meeting means that most of the jump jockeys will not take a break or cut short their plans, so where is the benefit?!

We could well be sending a lorry over to Ireland next week as classy staying Shoegazer has an entry in the Kerry National, for which the weights were announced today.  He appears to have a nice racing weight on 10-11 (topweight Quito de la Roque is set to concede upwards of a stone all round) and I’m sure there won’t be any shortage of volunteers from staff willing to go across with him!

For all the latest on the stables’ runners and any other news from the yard, don’t forget to check out Chester’s Daily Chat, or follow us on Twitter: @DavidPipeRacing.