- Monday, 21 July 2014 15:41
- Written by David Pipe
Well, he got there in the end! A P McCoy finally surpassed my father’s tally of winners with success in the Summer Plate at Market Rasen aboard It’s A Gimme on Saturday. To ride 4,192 winners is a phenomenal achievement and judging by his appearance at Pond House on Sunday evening to claim bragging rights, his hunger is undiminished. He still wants to ride 300 winners in a season and that feat alone would put him firmly on his way to an extraordinary 5,000 winners.
We had a lovely little get together last night (Sunday) to celebrate his achievement and for all that has been made out of the competition, it has all been in good humour and we could not be happier for him. Congratulations from everybody at Pond House to a very special talent.
There have been persistent rumblings that my father was going to get his training licence out again to re-pass the champ and as you can see from the following photograph it would seem like the first of his new string arrived last week! I am only joking of course, and the lovely little Shetland, named Janna is for my children Jack and Sophie to enjoy.
It hasn’t been a bad week for us either, kicked off by the success of Franklin Roosevelt at Newton Abbot on Monday in the 3m3f staying handicap hurdle. Given a positive ride from Tom Scudamore, he barely saw another rival to beat Possol by six lengths. This was a good opportunity for him to regain the winning thread on his seasonal debut from a hurdle mark that was the same as his last winning chase mark. Without wishing to sound arrogant, he has been well placed to win five races since joining us at Pond House and hopefully he will be able to add to that tally again before too long and he will be kept on the go through the summer.
Weather Babe continued our good start to the season by becoming our twentieth winner of the current campaign with success at Worcester on Wednesday. Officially 6lbs ahead of the handicapper following her good second at Market Rasen the previous week, she was entitled to win this handicap hurdle with something to spare. She is a tough and consistent mare and hopefully her revised mark will not be unduly harsh.
Of our weekend runners, I thought that Guess Again ran with credit in the Summer Plate. The trip was on the short side and everything seemed to be happening a little too quickly for him. He stayed on well to snatch fourth in the closing stages and he has had a prosperous start to the season with his placing here to add to his two successes (including in the Perth Gold Cup). Meanwhile, Street Entertainer ran a decent race in the competitive handicap hurdle at Newton Abbot on Sunday and he should continue to be competitive from these sort of marks.
We are facing a quiet spell on the jump racing front with only Massannie running before next week. She makes her chasing debut at Bangor tomorrow evening (Tuesday) and has schooled well at home. She is a talented mare who, if taking to chasing could take even higher rank over fences.
I can barely believe that Chester Barnes is about to join the rest of us in the 21st century. Rumour has it that the former five-times British table tennis champion and full-time blogger has just joined Twitter. @ChesterPingPong should certainly feature some (occasionally!) amusing snippets and insights into the mind of a sporting genius!
Finally, I should also like to congratulate Mikey Ennis who landed himself a nice winner when successful aboard Purple Bay in the Listed Summer Hurdle at Market Rasen for John Ferguson on Saturday. Mikey has been with us at Pond House for a few years now and is very good value for his 7lbs claim – he was successful aboard our Midlands National winner Big Occasion in 2013 and is on a hot streak at present, having ridden a winner on the level at Newmarket the previous evening. Well done to him.
