- Monday, 06 January 2014 15:40
- Written by David Pipe
We signed off 2013 with a handful of runners at Taunton on Monday and Uttoxeter on Tuesday, but it has been a quiet start to 2014, due in most part to the recent downpours playing havoc with the racing calendar. Last Friday we seemed to have the full house; rain, thunder, lightning, hailstorms and then believe it or not, sunshine – all we were missing was a bit of snow! Indeed, the last dry day we had at Pond House was on December 12th…I don’t mind a bit of cut in the ground but it seems that several of the tracks up and down the country are under several feet of water.
We signed off 2013 with a handful of runners at Taunton on Monday and Uttoxeter on Tuesday, but it has been a quiet start to 2014, due in most part to the recent downpours playing havoc with the racing calendar. Last Friday we seemed to have the full house; rain, thunder, lightning, hailstorms and then believe it or not, sunshine – all we were missing was a bit of snow! Indeed, the last dry day we had at Pond House was on December 12th…I don’t mind a bit of cut in the ground but it seems that several of the tracks up and down the country are under several feet of water.
Work carries on very much as usual here at the stables. Our gallops have an excellent drainage system in place and when the weather is just too bad to go out, there is always the covered canter to exercise the horses in. All of this means that the horses are fit and ready to go when racing continues in earnest and the worst conditions they are ever likely to face is on the racecourse itself.
We have lost several meetings over the past week, but I was particularly disappointed to see Sandown abandoned on Saturday. The feature race on the card was the Grade One Tolworth Hurdle, in which we had The Liquidator. The BHA have done well to rearrange the contest for Kempton this Saturday and should be applauded for doing so, although I am not convinced that the tight nature of the new venue will suit our charge as well as Sandown would have done. Still, he is fit and well and will receive another entry in the race when it closes tomorrow (Tuesday).
Looking to the entries, we will have one runner at Leicester tomorrow (where the ground is currently described as soft) when Edmund Kean will make his chasing debut. A previous point-to-point winner, he was a most promising young hurdler last term, winning a couple of races on soft and heavy ground at Fakenham and Taunton as well as running an excellent race when third in the EBF NH novices’ handicap hurdle final at Sandown on his final start of last season. He will certainly handle the ground, although he does have a disappointing reappearance run at Cheltenham to overcome. He seems well at home and we will be hoping for an improved performance tomorrow under Tom Scudamore.
Later in the week we have entries at Doncaster and Huntingdon (subject to the weather!), while at the weekend at Kempton, Warwick and Wetherby the likes of Buddy Bolero, Gevrey Chambertin, His Excellency and Red Sherlock will feature among our entries. As usual, further details on runners and any other stable gossip can be found by visiting Chester’ Daily Chat.
While there was very little action under rules, the point-to-point at Wadebridge in Cornwall still managed to get the go-ahead on Sunday and it was a good day for a number of our staff. David Noonan (pictured right) won his first race with victory aboard former Pond House inmate Joaaci in the Hunt race, so well done to him – I am sure it is the first of many. Michael Heard also rode a winner, as did Gerry Supple’s long suffering partner Jo Buck.
Finally, I couldn’t finish this week without saying how extremely saddened I was to learn of the passing of former three times champion jump jockey Terry Biddlecombe on Sunday. During his later career Terry became assistant trainer to his wife Henrietta (Knight) and they enjoyed a wonderful partnership, highlighted by the three amazing Gold Cup victories of Best Mate and Champion Chase success of Edredon Bleu. Terry and Hen visited us at Pond House on a number of occasions (as you can see from the picture below). Terry was an amazing man with some fantastic tales to tell – a real larger than life character. I am sure he will be sadly missed by everyone involved in racing and our thoughts are with Hen and his children at this time.
Terry Biddlecombe 1941-2013
