- Monday, 21 March 2016 16:50
- Written by Chelsea Eggleton
Well, the wait was certainly worth it as the 2016 Cheltenham Festival served up a real treat for racing fans and I was delighted to have been a part of the action once again. We sent a small but select team to the Prestbury Park track this year with eleven runners spread across the four days of the fixture and we were rewarded with a winner on day one, while six of our runners reached the prize money.
As I have said many times in the past; at the beginning of each Festival I would be pleased with just one winner and I am sure (unless they are called “Mullins”) my counterparts would agree. The racing is the most competitive that you will find anywhere in the world and I was thrilled to get the monkey off the back on day one of the Festival when Un Temps Pour Tout (pictured above) landed the three mile Ultima Handicap Chase in good style by seven lengths from a resurgent Holywell.
Tom Scu had him prominent throughout and he produced a faultless display of jumping to go clear with the runner-up and a loose horse from three out. Seemingly relishing this slightly quicker surface and longer trip, he asserted on the run-in and readily drew clear. He has always been a high class horse and it was most encouraging to see him put in the sort of performance that we had hoped he was capable of over the larger obstacles. He could now go to Aintree or Punchestown, while a return trip to Auteuil to defend his French Champion Hurdle crown is still very much a possibility.
Aside from Un Temps Pour Tout, the remainder of our runners largely performed extremely well with Kings Palace and Champers On Ice reaching the frame in their respective races, while Amigo, Starchitect all ran blinders to finis close up while Top Wood was still travelling nicely when parting company with Katie Walsh four out in the Kim Muir.
One of the few disappointments of the week was the performance of Doctor Harper in the Kim Muir – following a mistake at the first he was never in contention and is certainly better than he was able to show on this occasion. He could go to Aintree where he was successful over timber and I am sure there will be other days for him.
We once again hosted our guests in our hospitality marquee for the four days of the Festival and it was well received and for that I would like to thank Liz for her help as well as Joy, Lucy and the others behind the bar and Dave and Susan on the door – it is very much appreciated.
The good form of the stable continued past the Cheltenham Festival with the successes of Mr Big Shot in the concluding bumper at Uttoxeter on Saturday and Iniciar in the handicap hurdle at Carlisle on Sunday. Mr Big Shot is a massive, backward gelding and he certainly showed plenty of signs of inexperience during his race. When the penny dropped however he picked up really well under Conor O’Farrell and he stretched eight lengths clear in what looked like a decent race on paper. He will certainly have learned a great deal for this experience and will benefit from a greater test of stamina in future. He will make a smashing hurdler/chaser and rates a very nice prospect for the future.
Iniciar is a different type altogether – he had some very decent form in France but had not translated that ability to hurdles in this country. Dropped in grade on his handicap debut and returned to a better surface here, he won well in the hands of Daryl Jacob. Hopefully he will be able to go on from here.
We will have a few runners locally this week with My Brother Sylvest contesting the handicap chase at Taunton this afternoon (Monday), while Closer To Home runs at Exeter tomorrow. Meanwhile, it will be good to see Newton Abbot back with their first fixture of the New Year on Saturday – it may only be the first day of spring, but the appearance of Newton Abbot on the fixture list certainly suggests that summer is on the way! There could well also be some runners further afield later in the week as we have entries at Carlisle and Haydock on Saturday.
I see that amateur jockey Sam Waley-Cohen hit the headlines at the weekend when he was suspended for seven days for being ajudged to have prematurely stopped riding aboard Long Run in the hunters’ chase at Carlisle only to be passed by two rivals close home. I do feel a little sorry for Sam – he did look over his incorrect shoulder prior to easing down but surely some common sense needs to prevail in instances such as this? Long Run has been a fabulous horse down the years (a Cheltenham Gold Cup and two King George’s bear testament to this), but he is clearly not the force of old and was making his racecourse reappearance after nearly two years off the track and the jockey clearly felt he had little left to give. While not a deciding factor when handing out the punishment, the infringement did not make any difference to punters as there were only seven runners, while the jockey was clearly not trying to obtain a favourable handicap mark for future races as Long Run has subsequently been retired. As far as I can tell, it is just a sad and unfortunate epitaph to the career of a wonderful horse.
Finally, much as I hate to admit it I should congratulate Chester Barnes on his near miraculous ante-post tipping! You may have seen a few weeks ago he put up Cause of Causes at 10/1 for the Kim Muir as well as other winners, Thistlecrack, Ivanovitch Gorbatov, Superb Story and Don Cossack while only tipping a couple of losers…I could barely believe it! Anyway, for all the latest gossip from Pond House, news on our runners and maybe even a few more winning tips don’t forget to visit Chester’s Daily Chat or follow us on Twitter @DavidPipeRacing.
Oh my goodness, I have just realised there are only 358 days until the Cheltenham Festival!
