Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone and I am pleased to bring you my first update bulletin of 2015. It was a case of so near but yet so far last week with many of the stable’s runners performing creditably without quite managing to get on the scoresheet. As such, we remain on 71 winners for the current campaign – hopefully this bout of seconditis will not last too long and we will be able to notch our first success of 2015.

Our first runners of 2015 came fittingly on New Years’ Day at Cheltenham and Our Father ran a cracker in the 3m2½f handicap chase to be narrowly denied by Mon Parrain. He has always run well fresh although has often failed to build on that promise over the course of a season so it was pleasing to see him run with credit on his second start this term. The obvious target for him is a tilt at the Grand National at Aintree in April – he appeared to take to them last term and confirmed that impression with his performance in the Becher Chase last month. He is due a rise in the weights for this latest effort and hopefully that will be enough to see him secure his place in the line-up.

On the same card Knight Of Noir ran another great race when beaten only ¾ length in the three mile handicap hurdle. Having been niggled to get involved in the race, he picked up in good fashion to lead halfway up the run-in. Unfortunately he was picked off again close home by the idling winner (to whom we were conceding stacks of weight) – it is a real shame as he has done nothing wrong in two starts at Cheltenham this season and richly deserves to get his head in front. There is every reason to think that he can continue to be competitive in these good quality staying handicaps and will make a smashing chaser one day for stable sponsors Wayne and Sarah Clifford.

Rathealy ran another good race when runner-up in the juvenile hurdle at Sandown on Saturday and has now filled that spot on two of his three starts. He was given an enterprising ride from the front from conditional jockey Michael Heard and should be able to go one better over hurdles before too long. On the same card Balgarry was yet another to finish second when putting up a creditable performance in the competitive handicap hurdle. He had improved (as he was entitled to) for his run in the Ladbroke on only his second start back from an almost three year absence. There are nice races to be won with him.

Meanwhile, of our other runners Sail By The Sea made a satisfactory chasing debut at Plumpton on Sunday when finishing third to the promising Grumetti. He will have learned from the experience and should have little problem taking higher rank in time. Rinnca Fada posted a decent racecourse debut effort when fourth in an Exeter bumper under amateur jockey David Noonan when a relatively unconsidered 33/1 chance, while point-to-point and bumper winner Skylander is clearly capable of better than he was able to show in the maiden hurdle on the same card.

Looking ahead to this week, the stable has no runners today (Monday), although we will be represented by Navanman and Saint John Henry at Bangor tomorrow. We have plenty of engagements for later in the week including at Leicester, Taunton, Huntingdon and Kempton with promising individuals such as Mount Haven, unbeaten Bidourey (pictured above) and Vayland among the possible runners. Vayland was in the process of running a nice race on his hurdling debut at Newbury until capsizing three out, fortunately he is none the worse for that experience and I hope he will be able to build on that promise shortly.

The big race of the weekend is the Lanzarote Hurdle at Kempton – a race that the stable has won previously with former Champion Hurdle winner Make A Stand. Our representatives this time around will come from either Shotavodka, Heath Hunter or Dell’ Arca who could drop back in trip having appeared not to have got home in the Long Walk at Ascot last time.

Early closing entries for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Chase and Ryanair Chase all close tomorrow and unsurprisingly we will be entering King George VI Chase runner-up Dynaste in both the Gold Cup and Ryanair. There has been increased speculation during the past few days over his likely target and all I will say (as in previous years) that we will weigh up all possibilities and make a decision much nearer the time. Also closing tomorrow is the Betfair Hurdle at Newbury and Skybet Chase from Doncaster – I will bring you all of the latest on our big race entries next week. In the meantime, you can keep up to date with all the latest news from around the yard through Chester’s Daily Chat or you can follow us on Twitter @DavidPipeRacing