Buckley's Chance!

Although we had no runners until the end of the week, it has nonetheless been a productive few days for the yard with the successes of Kings Palace at Fontwell on Friday and My Brother Sylvest at Huntingdon on Sunday taking our seasonal tally to twenty winners.

Although we had no runners until the end of the week, it has nonetheless been a productive few days for the yard with the successes of Kings Palace at Fontwell on Friday and My Brother Sylvest at Huntingdon on Sunday taking our seasonal tally to twenty winners.

I was very pleased to see King’s Palace break his duck over timber in the 2m6½f maiden hurdle – he had shown good form in bumpers last term but had an unfortunate experience when taking a nasty fall on his hurdling debut at Ayr in January when still in with every chance. This was only his fourth ever start and he still showed signs of inexperience by hanging right under Tom Scudamore in the closing stages. The form looks solid with a winning point-to-pointer in second and a 121 rated hurdler back in third. He is still a big baby, but will have learned plenty from this experience and is a lovely horse that will make a smashing staying chaser one day.

I should also lavish praise upon conditional jockey Anthony Fox who nominated King’s Palace (pictured left) as his horse to follow in our series of video interviews that we are currently showing exclusively on my website. In fact, Anthony branded King’s Palace ‘a certainty’ for a race of this nature and I am happy that he has proven to be correct.

Our other winner on the week came at Huntingdon on Sunday when My Brother Sylvest landed the novices’ handicap chase in good style. Despite the small field it looked to be a very competitive race on paper, but our seven year old jumped and travelled very well and soon had most of his rivals in trouble. I am not sure that some of his opponents produced their best form, but you can only beat what is put in front of you and he is still seems to be improving over fences. He was a real tearaway when he arrived at the yard and I am very proud of the job the team at Pond House have managed to do with him to land five races. He has come out of his race well and while he continues in such good form I have decided to give him an entry back over hurdles at Ffos Las on Sunday.

While My Brother Sylvest was scoring at Huntingdon, I was at Uttoxeter where there was quiet a momentous occurence.  My secretary Gail Harrison actually went racing!  Gail has threatened to go to a fixture for some time now, but on Sunday it actually happened for the first time since I have had a licence.  It was James Bond day at the track and she was a little surprised when she was confronted by professional assassin Jaws (aka Richard Kiel) from the films The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker.  Don't they make a lovely couple?!

Above: Gail and Jaws (Gail is the one on the right!)

While we are on the subject of entries, we have made engagements for Bathwick Man, Royal Peak, Basil Fawlty, Standing Ovation and Mr Trilby at Exeter on Thursday as well as Lola Galli at Worcester on the same day. There could also be some runners at the Welsh tracks of Chepstow and Ffos Las at the weekend. Meanwhile over on the flat, Purple ‘N Gold holds an entry at Kempton on Wednesday while Mamlook has been confirmed at the latest stage for this weekend’s Cesarewitch at Newmarket (a race that he twice been placed in in the past).

I see that it has been decided that the final meeting of the season at Sandown will now be an all jump card rather than the traditional mixed meeting and will be followed by a three day break to clearly define the end and beginnings of the old and new seasons. I’m not sure it will make much difference altering the card to a dedicated jumps fixture, although it is great news that there is no racing the following day. However, if they can organise a three day break, could they have not made it a full week?

Anyway, onto the latest instalment of our video series and this week we have our head lad Eddie Buckley. Eddie, a former professional jockey and trainer certainly has the gift of the gab and can spin a yarn with the best of them, but he is a good judge. To see what he has selected as his horse to follow for the season ahead, check out his interview with Mike Vince below. Meanwhile, over on Chester’s daily blog we will be bringing you the opinions of Pond House stalwart Gerry Supple.

Eddie Buckley Horse To Follow 2013/14

Finally, I would just like to congratulate Criquette Head-Maarek for the sensational performance of Treve in yesterday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp. It was a sparkling effort from the filly and a great training performance.

For all the latest news from the stable don’t forget to visit Chester’s Daily Chat or follow us on Twitter @DavidPipeRacing