- Monday, 07 December 2015 10:53
- Written by David Pipe
Bella - Winner at Ludlow Last Week
As I write this I am sat on the train en route to London for this year’s Racehorse Writers Awards so you will have to forgive me if I am brief this week…I will probably have lost my train of thought! It should be another great day and I would like to thank my perennial host, commentator Mike Vince for his continued and generous hospitality. I must say, as only the second jumps trainer to be nominated for the International Trainer Award, I am extremely honoured, although with the likes of John Gosden in opposition and the heroics of Golden Horn overseas any thoughts of victory are right at the back of my mind.
Nevertheless, it has been a good week and I am pleased to have had a few winners to keep the scoreboard ticking along while many others have run solid races in defeat. Bella has been one of the fairytale stories of the season for me so far - she was bought for a modest sum last summer at the Arqana sales and has already earned back her price tag a few times over. Indeed, at the time of writing she is our second leading money earner this season, behind only Dynaste having won a £25,000 mares’ race, while adding almost another £13,000 with victory at Ludlow on Wednesday under Tom Scudamore.
I have said it a number of times in the past and Bella is an excellent example – you do not have to spend a fortune to become a successful racehorse owner. We have an excellent track record of finding the right horse for your money and getting a little more ‘bang for your buck’. If you are interested in joining the ranks of owners at Pond House, please do get in touch and I would be more than happy to have a no obligation chat about your requirements.
Onto Friday and I thought that Fingertips put up a good performance when winning the juvenile hurdle at Sandown under a well-judged front-running ride from Daryl Jacob. Despite the small field, this was still a decent effort to give 10lbs and a beating to 100 rated flat performer, Polarisation even if the odds-on favourite was far from fluent. Fingertips had lost his debut race for the stable at Cheltenham last month before he had even left the paddock, getting himself particularly worked up. I was pleased therefore to see him more settled on this occasion and as he continues to acclimatise to racing over here I am sure he will continue to progress and rank more highly.
Unfortunately the weekend did not yield any winners, despite two of our Chepstow runners leading over the final obstacle but the majority ran well and I am fairly happy if not a little frustrated! Over the Grand National fences Soll put up another fine display to finish fourth not beaten very far at all. The Grand National come April will once again be his ultimate target. The downside to this race is that Tom Scu picked up a five day bad which means he could miss Boxing Day. Tom is looking to appeal for which I am in full support of so hopefully things will go in his favour. Poole Master ran okay in the Grand Sefton, also over the National fences, jumping well and completing. At Sandown, Whatamoment ran with promise on his first run over hurdles while Lady of Longstone was not seen at her recent best. Maybe the race came a bit soon after Kempton and conditions were not exactly in her favour. Doctor Harper was disappointing in the Pertemps race, he was a bit ring rusty due to his time off the track but I hope there will be plenty of improvement to come. Taj Badalandabad travelled and jumped well in the first time visor before getting tired two from home. Meanwhile at Chepstow things looked good for Ballywilliam in the first race when his closest pursuer departed at the last but in hindsight this was probably as disadvantage as we were collared on the line by the horse who was in third place at the time. Ballywilliam has lots of ability but is a slightly quirky character and I am sure he will be winning sooner rather than later. Epic Warrior ran well to finish third in the handicap hurdle and Top Wood ran a cracker, again leading over the last before being caught close home. This was a pleasing coming back and he is sure to continue to run well in some nice staying races this winter. Don’t forget Top Wood is actually for sale to stay in the yard, so if anyone is interested please get in contact on 01884 840715 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and look at the horses for sale page on the website for more details.
As I had mentioned previously, the horses continued to perform creditably on the whole and I thought that the likes of Mozo, Spending Time and Skylander all showed more than enough last week to suggest that their winning turn should not be far away once again. Mozo is a likeable filly with a willing attitude who looks as though she will improve further once tackling a longer trip, while Spending Time ran well in defeat from his revised handicap mark and is already a better chaser than he was hurdler.
I had mentioned a couple of weeks ago that this season’s leading amateur rider David Noonan was shortly going to turn professional and he had his first rides as a conditional jockey at Sandown on Saturday. Due to an incredible amount of red tape, the whole process of removing the “Mr” from his name on the racecard had taken far longer than anticipated. David had enjoyed a remarkable start to the season, recording 22 winners this season as an amateur and I am sure he will enjoy similar success as a conditional jockey. He was a runaway leader of the amateur jockeys’ series and while any subsequent victories will not count, I am sure he will still be keeping an eye on that table!
Looking ahead to this week, Alternatif will try and get is head in front for the first time over fences at Fontwell on Tuesday. He ran a great race at Cheltenham last time so hopefully he can go one better. I have a couple of entries at Leicester on Wednesday, Taunton and Warwick on Thursday and then Bangor, Cheltenham and Doncaster on Friday. The weekend looks fairly quiet compared to some but keep checking back on Chester’s Daily Blog for more news of the yards runners throughout the week.
