- Monday, 23 July 2018 15:47
- Written by David Pipe
The horses continue to run well without quite getting their heads in front which is certainly frustrating. However, exasperating as it is, at least they are in decent form – it would be considerably worse if the horses were underperforming. With a dearth of jumps fixtures we only had four runners over the sticks last week with Timeforben narrowly denied at Uttoxeter, Chato a solid third at Newton Abbot, while Kalifourchon was still in with a shout when parting company with his rider.
Timeforben continues in good form. Arriving at Uttoxeter as the winner of two of her previous three starts, she looked as though she would add to that tally on Wednesday in the 2m7½f handicap hurdle. Moving stylishly through the field to dispute the lead at the last, she could not quite get past the winner on the run-in. This was another good run from our tough mare from a career high handicap mark. She is clearly still improving and copes well with this quick surface and can continue to go well in races of this nature.
Chato ran another solid race on his second start for the Pond House team when finishing third at Newton Abbot on Sunday. Contesting the 3m2½f handicap hurdle, he stayed this longer trip well and was far from disgraced trying to concede 11lbs to the winner.
With only one jumps fixture at Cartmel today (where we are not represented) and three other meetings scheduled for the remainder of the week, entries are looking a bit sparse. Celestial Path could bid to complete his hat-trick at Worcester on Thursday in the 2m handicap hurdle, while Timeforben and Druide Premier are both engaged at Uttoxeter on Friday. Dell’ Arca will have a choice of engagements over hurdles or fences at Uttoxeter on Sunday.
Meanwhile, we have a handful of flat entries for new recruit Acker Bilk. He has been a progressive handicapper on the all-weather and is entered at Lingfield on Wednesday as well as Salisbury and Chester on Saturday. He is likely to take up one of those engagements, while he will certainly be trying his hand over hurdles sooner rather than later. We will conduct the routine tests and look into each race before deciding on running plans, but as usual you can keep up to date with the latest running plans by reading Chester’s Daily Chat or following us on Twitter.
Racing Welfare’s Racing Staff Week may have been and gone, but it is never too late for a nice get together and so we belatedly held our staff barbeque at Pond House on Friday. Leanne’s brother Martin did a great job on the grill and everybody was well catered for, thanks in large part to the generous cash contribution from the Racehorse Owners’ Association.
It was a glorious afternoon and many of the staff enjoyed a quick game of cricket afterwards. Moment of the match came when tractor driver Sean Darlow almost lost his bat through the swimming pool window, while man of the match was my son Jack who top-scored with the bat while also running out MCP who remains ridiculously competitive.
Thank you to Racing Welfare for organising these events – they are very much appreciated by all participating. Racing Welfare do an enormous amount to support past and present employees from all sectors of the racing industry and you can find out more about their work here: https://racingwelfare.co.uk/
The stable featured on BBC4’s ‘Beach Live’ on Thursday evening (rescheduled from our original Tuesday slot owing to the nature of live television) and I hope that viewers found the feature interesting. It focussed on the fascinating research of Jan Knight and the Common Piddock which helps in monitoring the horses’ health with a unique test on their blood samples. If you missed it, it can be viewed on the BBC iPlayer.
Also last week, my eldest; Jack had his first riding lesson and is already jumping over poles! I will bring you the video as soon as I have it. Suffice to say, Jack is already a better jockey than either me or his grandfather (although that is not saying a lot!). I bet Archie McCoy is shaking in his boots!
Although quiet on the racing front, there is still plenty of housekeeping to be done around the yard and we took delivery of woodchip this morning to top up the famous Pond House gallop. This will get evenly spread across the gallops over the coming days to provide a lovely soft, consistent surface for the horses to exercise on. Our Wexford sand gallop is due to be topped up shortly as well.
