A Week Of High Drama

Unless you have been living on a different planet over the past seven days, you will no doubt be aware that there have been some major racing stories, some of which have caused ripples in the ante-post markets for the Cheltenham Festival and others that have sent shockwaves throughout the entire racing fraternity.

Where better to start this week than with my thoughts on the impending retirement of undoubtedly the greatest jockey ever to have lived? I am of course talking about the shock decision of A P McCoy to hang up his breeches at the end of the current season. Much has already been written on the subject and I would struggle to add any further superlatives to a man who has torn up the record book and turned it to confetti.

His unerring and unique dedication, drive and determination has always stood him apart from his contemporaries and helped him achieve pinnacles few ever thought would be possible. He will retire this season having claimed his twentieth successive championship and there is barely a big race to have eluded him during an incomparable career. I consider myself privileged to have played even a small part in his story, with 70 winners from myself and 1154 for my father contributing to his stratospheric total that currently stands in excess of 4,300.

Most of all, I consider A P a close friend and will certainly miss him at the racecourse. He has been a tremendous ambassador for the sport not only displaying his brilliance on the horse, but also by unfailingly giving of his time to talk and sign autographs for enthusiastic race goers or help with charity fundraisers. His retirement will leave an enormous void in the sport that will be impossible to fill. In the meantime, I would encourage anyone to try to attend the races where possible before April 25th – it is not every day that you get to witness greatness, but for the next couple of months you still can.

The other big news last week came courtesy of the Pond House stable when we confirmed that Dynaste (pictured right) will miss the Cheltenham Festival and therefore be unable to defend his Ryanair Chase title. Unfortunately he strained a hind leg during his prep-race at Cheltenham when a close third to Many Clouds and will not have sufficient time to make a full recovery. He is often a little sore after his races and so we monitored the situation closely for a few days and as soon as it became evident that he would not be ready in time for the Festival, we informed the public. It is an extremely disappointing blow for everyone connected with the yard. Unfortunately this is a story that is oft-repeated in the run-up to the Cheltenham Festival – Dynaste may have been the first high profile absentee from the meeting, although I would be extremely surprised if he were the last (only today it has transpired that Paul Nicholls’ Al Ferof will miss Cheltenham). The good news is that Dynaste lives to fight another day and all things being equal, he should be back for a full campaign next season.

While we are on the subject of the big fixtures, they do not come much bigger than the Aintree Grand National, entries for which closed last week. In our bid to follow-up our 2008 success with Comply Or Die we have entered Poole Master, The Package, Broadway Buffalo, Soll and Standing Ovation. Poole Master showed his liking for the unique Aintree fences when a ready winner of the Grand Sefton Chase earlier in the season, although he still needs to finish in the frame over three miles before he is eligible to run. The Package ran well for a long way last year, while Broadway Buffalo has abundant stamina – a comment that also applies to Soll, while Standing Ovation was unlucky to unseat Conor O’Farrell after being hampered in last year’s Topham. We will see what senior handicapper Phil Smith makes of the race when we attend the weights luncheon on Tuesday of next week.

With only a month to go until the start of the Cheltenham Festival I am pleased to report that the horses continue in good form and a further four winners means that we have now enjoyed eighty-nine winners this term. Thanks in large part to the weather doing its best to intervene, our fist runners of the week did not come until Taunton on Thursday. Skylander started the ball rolling when running out a determined winner of the maiden hurdle under conditional jockey Michael Heard. The third home was rated 121 so this was clearly a decent performance from our improving six year old – already a winning point-to-pointer over three miles in Ireland, he will should progress further with a greater test of further and will make a nice chaser in time.

Michael Heard was also aboard our next winner, Bygones Sovereign who surprised us all by turning the stayers’ handicap hurdle at Newbury on Saturday into something of a rout. Making all of the running under a well-judged ride and jumping impeccably, he quickly established a lead and his rivals never saw which way he went as he passed the line a barely believable 28 lengths ahead of his nearest pursuer. For all that this was a great ride by Michael Heard (who has to be one of the most improved jockeys of the season), you do have to wonder what on earth the jockeys in behind were doing as the time for the race showed that Michael didn’t go crazy in front. The handicapper looks sure to give him a hike in the rating for this career best performance and may just prompt a switch to fences next term.

We went on to record a double on the card when Kings Palace (pictured above) comfortably won the two-runner novices’ chase. We had been hoping to gain a bit of experience away from Cheltenham and this had looked the ideal race for him, so it was disappointing when the field cut up so badly as it would have been great if one could have given him a lead. It wasn’t entirely straight forward as he made a couple of hair-raising errors at the ditch in the straight, although his jumping at the plain fences was spectacular. He is a bit stiff after his race, but is still firmly on target for Cheltenham although tomorrow he will be scratched from the Gold Cup, leaving the RSA Chase as his festival objective. He is hugely exciting and I wouldn’t swap him for anything else at this stage.

Our final success of the week came at Exeter yesterday (Sunday) when Soll won the valuable veterans’ handicap chase. He received a great ride from Tom Scudamore who was after him from an early stage on his first ride for the stable. Soll responded generously and began to get on top approaching the last to score by four lengths. His abundant stamina clearly helped and his revised mark could just get him in to the bottom of the handicap for the Grand National itself, a race in which he finished seventh behind Aurora’s Encore in 2013 when with Jo Hughes.

Finally, I would like to bring news of Swing Bill who for years was such a wonderful servant here at Pond House and an Aintree regular. Now in the care of the inspirational Guy Disney, the officer who lost his leg from the knee down in the Afghanistan conflict, the pair competed at the weekend in a Combined Services Club member’s race at Larkhill finishing a creditable third. Even at the age of fourteen ‘Bill’ (pictured below) retains all of his enthusiasm and I hope to see the pair in the winners’ enclosure before long.

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