- Monday, 18 April 2016 15:56
- Written by David Pipe
The success of Impulsive American at Ayr on Saturday was the 79th success of the season for the Pond House team with just a week remaining of the current term. It looks like being a busy final week with plenty of entries culminating in Bet365 day at Sandown on Saturday – a race in which we have three entries. To find out more about those, read on…
It has been a challenging season and I will be pleased for the 2016/17 campaign to commence, although I am pleased that the horses have been in good form of late. With a Cheltenham Festival winner and over £1 million in prize money we have hit two of the three goals I set each term, with one hundred winners being the only target we will not reach.
Impulsive American’s success at Ayr in the hands & heels conditional and amateur jockeys handicap hurdle meant that the yard remained among the winners while also ensuring that the long journey up to Scotland for the Scottish National meeting was well worthwhile, especially for local owners Josie and Sean Tracey. Impulsive American has done nothing but improve since switching to hurdling this term and on his twelfth outing over timber he produced his best performance yet to land the spoils by eight lengths under David Noonan. Such was the manner of victory it is not difficult to imagine him turning out again quickly before the handicapper can reassess him.
This has been a real break-out season for jockey David Noonan who was recording his 37th winner of the season and would actually have taken him one ahead of leading conditional Craig Nichol had all his winners been in conditional jockeys’ races. Unfortunately for him, he turned professional after his 22nd win of the season having been competing as an amateur until then. Even so, he had the amateurs’ title sewn up well before Christmas (some achievement in itself) and I am sure he will be more than happy with that. David is a great asset to the stable – he is professional, determined and a nice lad to boot, I am sure he has a bright future ahead of him.
The victory of Impulsive American once again highlighted the lows and highs of racing as only a couple of hours earlier the Tracey’s were disappointed after their Top Wood fell in the Scottish National six for home when prominent and still travelling well. Indeed, this was the second time this has happened in his last three starts (you may recall that he departed when still travelling well in the four miler at the Cheltenham Festival last month) and he looks to have a nice staying prize in him.
Talking of nice staying prizes, the culmination of the season comes at Sandown this weekend and the Bet365 Gold Cup over 3m5½f (the old Whitbread) is a great finale. The stable has won the race in the past with the likes of Cache Fleur, Bounce Back and Puntal and I would love to add to that tally. We have three left in the race at the latest stage; Dynaste, Amigo and Katkeau. Dynaste ran a good race at Aintree when fourth behind Cue Card despite a troubled passage and he shapes as though he needs more of a test of stamina these days. He is in good form at home and could go there, as could Katkeau, while Amigo could struggle to get in the final line-up - both Dynaste and Katkeau would want some rain. This year’s renewal could proves especially competitive with Willie Mullins and Paul Nicholls likely to have plenty of runners as they duke it out for the trainers’ championship.
Looking to the rest of this week, we have one runner, Miss Williams at Newton Abbot today (Monday), while we go to Ludlow with Shotavodka and Eamon An Cnoic and Kempton with Willem on Tuesday. Later of the week we have plenty of entries at Exeter, Perth, Plumpton and Chepstow as well as Sandown so it could be a busy close to the season. As usual, you can get all the latest news on runners from the stable by visiting Chester’s Daily Chat.
Finally, I was saddened to learn of the loss of an old Pond House inmate last week when news filtered across from Switzerland that Shakalaka had passed away. Owned by great friend of Pond House, Adrian Wichser, Shakalaka had a spell at the stable before he was retired. Since then he has had a lovely time with his owner where he formed a great bond with Adrian’s young daughter Dina. Although his stay was only brief, we will fondly remember him and our thoughts are with Adrian and his family.
