Dell Delivers!

With the sun continuing to beat down until the end of last week, it has meant that the ground has remained unsuitably fast for some of our intended runners. As such, there were only two runners from Pond House but they both performed creditably with old favourite Dell’ Arca producing one of his very best efforts to land a competitive handicap hurdle at Uttoxeter on Sunday.

Last Week’s Runners

Indeed, our only runners of the week came at Uttoxeter; Druide Premier on Friday and Dell’ Arca on Sunday. A combination of artificial watering and heavy rainfall meant that the ground at the Staffordshire track had changed from good on Friday to soft on Sunday. Druide Premier, a full-brother to Dynaste is a young horse with plenty of potential and he showed that he had inherited a fair amount of the family’s ability when a close third in a decent looking bumper at Newton Abbot on his only previous start. Making all the running in the Uttoxeter bumper on Friday, he plugged on to finish third, although I had hoped he would finish a little closer. He will prefer a softer surface and we will try a change of tactics next time.

Dell Delivers

Dell’ Arca (pictured above), having his first start since running over the larger obstacles at Newton Abbot in May, certainly appreciated the softer surface and return to hurdles for the 2m7½f handicap hurdle at Uttoxeter on Sunday. Despite the welter burden of 12-2 he was always travelling strongly in the hands of Tom Scudamore and apart from an error at the third last, it was very straight forward. Kept up to his work he bounded away after the last to win by 5 lengths from a mark of 142. He has always been a quality individual and has seldom had much respite from the handicapper due to his admirable attitude. He is sure to be taking another hike for this, so things aren’t going to get any easier for him.

The Week Ahead

There are only a handful of entries this week and we won’t be having any runners before Thursday at the earliest. Celestial Path is entered at Stratford and he is an intended participant in the 2m½f handicap hurdle – a winner of his last two starts, he needs top of the ground so we won’t want too much rain for him. Lochinver, a point-to-point flat winner is entered in the bumper at Market Rasen on Sunday, while on the level; Acker Bilk has an entry in the 1m4f flat handicap at Chester. With a mixed bag in the weather forecast, we will keep an eye on the skies over the coming days as well as assess the potential opposition before finalising running plans. As usual, you can get all the latest news on our runners from Chester’s Daily Chat or by following us on Twitter @DavidPipeRacing.

Weather Watch

Talking of the weather, it would seem that Pond House is in its own micro-climate! While there were yellow weather warnings issued by the Met Office over the weekend with up to 80mm of rain forecast for parts of Devon, we had only 12mm. Much as I have enjoyed the sunshine, we could certainly do with a bit more of the wet stuff just to ease the ground slightly. Even so, amazingly with just that little bit of rain the fields are already looking greener.

It Was This Big!

Finally, with a break in the jumps schedule I had a day out with Tom Scu last Tuesday when we enjoyed a spot of sea fishing off Weymouth. We caught a few mackerel and sea bream, while Tom also managed to snag a dogfish (a member of the shark family) to screams of “You’re going to need a bigger boat!” Much as I enjoyed it, I think I will stick to training horses…