Soll A Vintage Veteran!

Out with the old and in with the new and I am pleased to report that 2016 has started in the best possible fashion for the Pond House team. Gallant victories from Champers On Ice and the admirable veteran Soll (pictured above) followed a highly promising chase debut success from Baltimore Rock. Those successes mean that we have now enjoyed 48 wins this campaign and has vaulted us back into fourth place in the trainers’ table.

I was delighted to sign 2015 off with a winner when Baltimore Rock won the novices’ limited handicap chase at Doncaster on his first start over the larger obstacles. This looked to be a decent little race on paper and the fact that he was able to defy a mark of 139 on his first start over fences certainly bodes well for the future. He was a quality hurdler, winning the Imperial Cup and finishing fourth in the Grade One novices’ hurdle at Aintree’s Grand National meeting a couple of seasons ago and I was always hopeful that he would prove at least as good a chaser. Jumping very well in the main (with the exception of a slightly slow leap at the last), he appeared to win a shade more cosily than the winning margin of ½ length would suggest as he was doing very little once hitting the front. The time was good compared to the remainder of the card and he is one to be excited about over the coming months.

As previously mentioned, we managed to keep the momentum going into the New Year as we enjoyed the very first winner of 2016 when Champers On Ice landed the opening novices’ hurdle over 2m4½f at Cheltenham on Friday. There are no easy races at Cheltenham at any point of the season, so to score under a penalty took a good effort and this was definitely another step forward from his Newbury success. He is a really tough, likeable sort and he battled bravely when challenged all the way up the straight. This was only his third start over hurdles so he is still open to plenty of improvement and it is not difficult to imagine him turning up at the Prestbury Park track in March in the Albert Bartlett hurdle. As a winning Irish point-to-pointer he was bought very much with chasing in mind, so anything else he can achieve over timber in the meantime must surely be considered a bonus.

Onto the weekend and Sandown where we had only a pair of runners; Soll and Houston Dynimo in the valuable veterans’ handicap chase final over 3 miles on extremely testing ground. In such conditions it was always going to take a thorough stayer to prevail and I could think of no horse I would rather have on my side in such circumstances than Soll. He stays all day, handles heavy ground and has a liking for Sandown. Only third approaching the last, but answering every call from Tom Scudamore he managed to pull the race out of the fire in the shadows of the post to record a thrilling victory.

Soll has been a great favourite since arriving at Pond House – a real gentle giant with an endearing nature and he has done remarkably well for the change of scenery winning three of his six starts for us and amassing over £100,000 in prize money. He ran well for a very long way in last year’s Grand National and he could well head there again this year. One thing is for sure, if conditions were to come up like they did at the weekend, there will not be many more keeping on better than him in the closing stages.

The result was surrounded by yet more controversy over the whip rules and I will abstain from getting embroiled in an argument over that other than to add that I am pleased to see the BHA are going to look into the current guidelines.

Onto this week and we have just one runner, Mount Haven at Ludlow this afternoon. Other than that it looks like being a quiet start to the week with probably only a handful of runners prior to the weekend where we have entries at Kempton and Wincanton as well as the rescheduled Chepstow Welsh Grand National card. As usual our runners will be governed by the weather and the best opportunities although I don’t hold out an awful lot of hope for Chepstow as I cannot seeing the ground being any better than when they abandoned last week. For all the latest details on the stable runners do keep up to date with Chester’s daily column.

Finally, an update on a couple of the Pond House stable stars…I am pleased to report that Red Sherlock is getting nearer to a run. Our seven year old son of Shirocco who won his first five starts but had been absent since disappointing behind Faugheen in the Neptune at the Cheltenham Festival in 2014 is now getting near to a run. He is pictured below swimming this morning in our equine pool and he could be making his reappearance as early as the end of January, beginning of February. The plan at present is to keep him over hurdles this season and I am certainly looking forward to getting him back on track. Meanwhile Champion Bumper winner Moon Racer is still recovering from his injury and there is nothing further to report on him at present.