- Monday, 25 April 2016 15:26
- Written by David Pipe
The 2015/16 season has drawn to a close and the team at Pond House posted a respectable eighty winners for the campaign and netted almost £1.2 million in prize money. There is no time for resting on your laurels however as the 2016/17 season follows hot on the heels of the old one with the new campaign beginning on Wednesday. The scores are all set back to zero and it is time to put in the hard graft and lay the foundations for the coming season. With that in mind I have been busy at the sales of late and have a few promising new faces among the equine ranks at the stable.
The stable finished the season with the success of Impulsive American (pictured right) at Perth on Tuesday. Our four year old was making a quick reappearance having won at Musselburgh the week prior and has really thrived on his racing, winning three times from fourteen starts, while finishing placed on a further nine occasions. He clearly has a liking for Scotland having won at Ayr, Perth and Musselburgh! David Noonan was in the saddle and he too enjoyed a good season, notching an impressive 41 winners. He now claims 3lbs and hopefully he will be able to consolidate upon his great success next term.
There were plenty of other good performances last week with the likes of Eamon An Cnoic, Shotavodka, Willem, Prideofthecastle, Brook, Perspicace, Purple ‘N Gold and Dell’ Arca all reaching the frame without quite managing to get their heads in front.
Purple ‘N Gold finished a good second in the competitive handicap chase at Chepstow on his 50th career start. He has been an incredible little horse since we picked him up cheaply from a claimer in December 2012. Since then he has won 6 times and been placed on a further 24 occasions and I am sure he will be adding to that tally before too long.
Looking back at last season, there were quite a few highlights although the ones that spring to mind have to be the Grade 2 Prix la Barka (French Champion Hurdle Trial) success of Ballynagour, the victory of Un Temps Pour Tout in the Grade One French Champion Hurdle and of course his Cheltenham Festival win in the Ultima Chase. Lady Of Longstone proved something of a revelation scoring five times, including in the valuable Challenger mares’ final at Haydock and old favourite Soll showed tremendous courage when landing the veterans’ final at Sandown.
You need to keep one eye on the future in this business and I am always on the lookout for exciting new talent to strengthen our squad and the recent sales at Aintree and Cheltenham have been very productive for us with seven new additions to the team. Most of them have already been sold, although I do still have a couple of very nice prospects available should anybody wish to join the ranks of owner at Pond House.
Ennistown was a quality performer on the level, winning several times and achieving a rating of 101, while he was also a dual hurdles winner in his first season over timber. He is a good looking, classy individual and will take his new owner to all the big meetings.
Meanwhile, Skinflint is a well-made four year gelding who finished a promising runner-up in his only start in an Irish point-to-point last month – the form of which has already started to work out quite well. It will not be long before he is ready to run and he is a nice prospect. Further details of both horses are available on my horses for sale page and I would be more than happy to have a no obligation chat should you have any interest in ownership.
Looking to the week ahead, I will be travelling over to Ireland on Wednesday morning as we run Moon Racer (pictured top) in the Champion Bumper at Punchestown later that afternoon. He has been pleasing me at home and it is hugely exciting to have him ready to go again after an absence of fourteen months following his victory in the 2015 Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival. Sadly for stable jockey Tom Scudamore the conditions of the race mean that participants are to be ridden by amateur jockeys, although I am sure big race partner Jamie Codd is thrilled by the news! Obviously it is a big ask to win a Grade One on foreign soil after an absence although I am very hopeful and wouldn’t swap him for anything else in the field.
When the season gets underway domestically, I am sure we will have a few runners. We have entries at Sedgefield, Fontwell, Bangor and Uttoxeter over the sticks (as well as a couple on the level) so, depending on what the weather does, we will be ready to go right away. We will have probably twenty or thirty horses that will be kept on the go through the summer months and hopefully lay the foundations for another good season in 2016/17.
Finally, I would just like to extend my congratulations to champion jockey Richard Johnson on an incredible season and a richly deserved first championship. He has maintained great perspective and dignity throughout all the ‘bridesmaid’ years when he was the perennial runner-up to the legendary Sir A P McCoy. There must have been times when he wondered if he would ever be champion jockey but his persistence and tremendous talent finally paid rewards. I don’t think there is anybody in racing who would begrudge him this title (including his weighing room counterparts) and I offer my sincerest congratulations on a fantastic achievement.
