- Monday, 19 October 2015 15:47
- Written by David Pipe
I believe one of the things that makes the sport of horse racing such an endearing and enduring draw for spectators is its unpredictable nature. The highs and lows that go with it means that you can never tell what will happen next and the stable certainly experienced both sides of the coin last week. The high came with the success of Lady Of Longstone at Worcester on Wednesday, while the low was undoubtedly the loss of Tom Scudamore to injury for 3-4 weeks following a fall at Huntingdon on Tuesday.
I was delighted with the success of Lady of Longstone at Worcester on Wednesday. She fairly bolted up in the mares’ handicap hurdle over 2m7f, making most of the running and jumping well under a nicely-judged ride from conditional jockey Michael Heard. This was clearly a personal best performance to win from a mark of 95 and it would be no surprise were she to win again while the ground remains lively. Further improvement would be required from her revised mark, although she is a likeable mare with a great attitude so that is far from the realms of impossibility.
As I mentioned earlier, losing your stable jockey to injury at any time is never good news but if there is one positive it is better to get it out of the way now before the season hits top gear. Scu took a horrible looking tumble from Impulsive American at Huntingdon last Tuesday, suffering ligament damage to his knee. Fortunately while there was damage, there are no tears to the ACL or MCL which could have kept him “off games” for several months. Tom is undergoing physio treatment, while the guys in the sports science department at Bristol's rugby team have kindly offered advice to assist a speedy recuperation. While he will miss the first Cheltenham meeting this weekend we are extremely hopeful that Scu will be back before the Paddy Power meeting next month.
Talking of Cheltenham, it is hard to believe that their first meeting of the season is now almost upon us. The Showcase fixture takes place on Friday and Saturday and marks the jumps season getting into full swing. We have a few entries over the two days although runners will very much depend on the weather. Following an unseasonably warm and dry end of September/beginning of October and with more dry weather to come, there is the prospect of Cheltenham watering (yes, honestly!) their ground ahead of the meeting. The likes of Purple ‘N Gold and Weather Babe will certainly appreciate drying ground although we will see what the races look like and the underfoot conditions before committing anything to run.
Looking to the remainder of the week, we will have four runners at Exeter tomorrow (Tuesday) as For ‘N’ Against, Lilbourne Legacy, Prince Of Poets and Border Breaker do duty for the yard, while Skylander and (as already mentioned) Lady of Longstone could go to Worcester on Wednesday. We could also be represented at Fontwell, Southwell or Ludlow later in the week. As always, full details of the stables’ runners can be found by visiting Chester’s daily chat.
Those of you who follow the fortunes of the stable will probably have seen the Racing Post’s stable tour in today’s paper. Ben Newton and photographer Ed Whittaker visited Pond House last week and once again have done an excellent job of producing an interesting read.
Talking of stable tours, we once again welcomed broadcasting legend Mike Vince to the stable to conduct a number of video interviews with some of my braver members of staff. My interview will appear here from Tuesday onward, so for my thoughts and hopes for the season ahead, don’t forget to check back then. It was lovely to see Mike once again, and my sincerest thanks go to him for kindly giving of his time and expertise to bring these snippets from the stable. We will be publishing the videos over the coming weeks and I hope that you will find them not only enjoyable but informative and profitable as well!
David Pipe Oct 15 from David Pipe on Vimeo.
