- Monday, 17 March 2014 16:35
- Written by David Pipe
A fantastic few days for the yard that had kicked off with the success of Baltimore Rock in the Imperial Cup at Sandown on Saturday 8th March was completed in the best possible manner by the success of Goulanes (pictured above) in the Midlands National at Uttoxeter the following Saturday. Those victories bookended the most fantastic of weeks for the team at Pond House as we hit the mark three times at the Cheltenham Festival.
Going into Festival week we had been full of hope for a good meeting. In terms of strength in depth, I thought this was our strongest raiding party yet - we had a number of promising young hurdlers to go to war with, as well as some of our more established stars. However, owing to the ridiculously competitive nature of the meeting, if you had asked me beforehand I would have been pleased with just one winner!
The Cheltenham Festival is a real pressure cooker environment so it was with great relief that we were on the board early with a winner in the second race of the meeting courtesy of Western Warhorse in the Arkle. He was a largely unconsidered 33/1 chance and rightly so given his previous profile! I had always thought highly of him, but being an Irish point-to-point winner I had expected to go down the staying handicap route with him rather than the two mile novice championship avenue! It was due to the persuasive nature of owner Roger Brookhouse that he ran in the race at all and on this occasion I am only too pleased to admit that he was right. Tom Scudamore is riding as well as I have ever seen him at present and he gave Western Warhorse a gem of a ride. He was flat out from an early stage but Scu managed to conjure some amazing leaps out of him on only his second start over fences. Winging the last, he relished the uphill finish to collar Irish favourite Champagne Fever right on the line…a most unexpected but welcome winner. Furthermore every horse looks to have run it's race and I see no reason why Western Warhorse cannot reproduce this level of form again.
Wednesday was a blank day although I was pleased with the performance of Dell’ Arca who finished a close fifth in the Coral Cup. He has performed well in all of the top two mile handicaps this season and again ran well on this step up to 2m5f, appearing to just run out of stamina after the last. He is rock solid and should continue to hold his own in all of the big handicaps from 2 to 2½ miles.
I cannot tell you how pleased I was to see Dynaste (pictured right) vindicate the high esteem in which he has always been held at Pond House with a decisive victory in the Ryanair Chase on the Thursday. He had run a cracker on his seasonal reappearance when runner-up in the Betfair Chase only to disappoint in the King George at Kempton on Boxing Day. He pulled muscles in his quarters that day and took some getting right again after, with leading equine physio Mary Bromiley putting in plenty of overtime in the run-up to the Festival. Fortunately everything came together in time for the Ryanair and coming with a well-timed run between the last two fences, he powered clear of Hidden Cyclone. He could well head to Punchestown, although the 3m1f of the Betfred Bowl at Aintree’s Grand National meeting looks tailor made for him and will probably be his next target.
Ballynagour (left) completed a memorable meeting for the team with a facile success in the Byrne Group Plate, a race in which he was sent off favourite in 2013. He has always had well documented problems with bleeding, but when he is right he is extremely good as demonstrated on this occasion. The trouble is, owing to these problems he has a very ‘in and out’ profile but on his day he is very high class and he remains capable of winning many other big races when in this kind of form.
Having gone into the week with high hopes for our team of novice hurdlers, it is somewhat ironic that it was the chasers who provided our success. Of those that disappointed, Red Sherlock clearly wasn’t at his best when finishing down the field in the Neptune. I am not naïve enough to suggest that he would have beaten easy winner Faugheen, but a line through earlier form with placed horses Rathvinden and (indirectly) Ballyalton would suggest that he should have been challenging for a place at least.
Kings Palace looked solid going into the Albert Bartlett novices’ hurdle and having jumped well through the majority of the race, it was disappointing to see him take a tired looking fall at the last when well beaten. He already boasted course form and had won over 1½f further – they didn’t go a crazy gallop so the only obvious conclusion is that the ground was quicker than ideal for him. Kings Palace is a little sore after his fall and is receiving treatment, while I am pleased to report that Red Sherlock appears okay - both will have plenty of other opportunities to prove this form all wrong.
To end the meeting with three successes and to finish only behind the all-conquering Willie Mullins’ brigade was beyond anything I could have hoped for and I would like to thank the whole team at Pond House for their concerted efforts.
The week drew to a close in fine style with a fourth consecutive win in the Midlands National at Uttoxeter on Saturday. Following the successes of Minella Four Star, Master Overseer and Big Occasion, I didn’t believe it possible to follow-up yet again, but Goulanes was most impressive under a deputising Richard Johnson. He had looked a most promising novice chaser last season but had seemed to lose his way in two runs this season, including on atrocious ground in the Welsh National last time.
Goulanes holds an engagement in the Aintree equivalent next month - he will be left in the race and we will see how he is closer to the time before deciding if he takes his chance there – his stamina looks assured and he is a sound jumper. The same could be said of The Package who has the Grand National as his next objective. He put up a most pleasing seasonal debut when finishing a close third in the Baylis and Harding at Cheltenham and could improve a little for the outing. He adds another strong string to our bow - Cheltenham is over for another year…roll on Aintree!
