Three More Winners

The weekend saw the closing of the 2018/19 season with a fantastic meeting from Sandown. Looking back, on the whole I am pleased with how things panned out for the Pond House team last term. Despite fewer horses we produced significantly more winners than the previous campaign, whilst increasing prize money by almost £100,000 and improving our percentage strike rate. It is now a case of starting again and bettering those totals this coming season. There is lots of work to do at the sales and around the yard this summer as we endeavour to do just that. I would like to thank my team of hard working staff for their continued efforts and my loyal owners for their trust and support.

Building For The Future

Indeed, the young horses coming through are looking most promising and that is backed up by the figures too. Some of you may be surprised to learn that we actually had more bumper winners than chase victories last season and with some of the hurdlers embarking of a chasing career this term, the parts are in place for a more balanced spread of success over the coming months.

The horses had been in fine form for a good portion of last season and I was pleased to finish off with three winners last week. Stream Lady (pictured right) started the ball rolling with a game victory in the 3m1f handicap hurdle at Plumpton on Monday. Attempting this sort of trip for the first time since winning an Irish point-to-point and on better ground, she saw her race out in tenacious fashion and hopefully will be able to build on this and confirm the promise she had shown in Ireland.

Dromineer (pictured above) made a belated racecourse debut in the bumper at Taunton on Wednesday in their concluding race of the season and I was very pleased with his performance in seeing off his rivals with the minimum of fuss. We have had him for quite a while now and niggling problems kept him off the track until now so my thanks for the patience displayed by owner William Frewen (and my father!). I am delighted he was able to win at the first time of asking and his pedigree coupled with the promise he showed here augur well for the future.

Delface was our final winner of the week when winning the last race at Chepstow on Friday night. A winner three times for owners the Pipe’s Prospectors, he has done well this term and will be kept on the go for now and could go chasing at some point. The Pipe’s Prospectors have been very lucky to have him and another multiple scorer in Mr Clarkson and I know the syndicate members have had enormous fun with these horses. We are looking to form more syndicates such as this, so please do get in touch if you would like to get involved in the thrill of ownership at a fraction of the normal cost.

Of our other runners Picture Painter, Jacbequick, Induno and Midnight Magic all performed well to finish runner-up, with Induno in particular showing great potential on his racecourse debut in a hot-looking Warwick bumper. He is our first horse for owner Ronnie Bartlett and he has a nice prospect on his hands. Ourmullion also shaped with promise in fourth at Taunton.

A Fine Testimonial

Rathlin Rose contested the Bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown on Saturday and I thought he ran very well for a long way, eventually finishing seventh. Before the race, owner Fergus Wilson wrote these very kind words:

“Who would have thought 21 years ago when Coutts Bank went that further yard to get a payment to Martin Pipe for Damas, my Grand National Runner of 1998, that it would start a chain reaction with my having runners in the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Scottish National, Welsh National, Ascot Gold Cup, and more recently in the Grand Military Gold Cup, and Royal Artillery Gold Cup culminating in the Bet 365 Gold Cup at Sandown this Saturday, the final day of the 2018-19 Jumps Season?

I have been fortunate to have runners in all the major steeplechases of the calendar. It has been a great twenty years and I would thoroughly recommend it to any prospective owner!

The highlight of this season was for my wife and I to be invited to a reception at Windsor Castle hosted my HM The Queen who complimented Judith on her Tartan outfit. Well, it is a big thank you to David Pipe, and the whole team at Pond House and I must not forget Coutts Bank for making it possible!”

A Bit Of Craic!

With the 2018/19 season behind us, we are already looking forward to the new campaign which gets underway with Cheltenham’s hunter chase meeting on Friday. Whilst we may not have any runners at Cheltenham, we do have entries at Uttoxeter this Saturday and before that I will be travelling to Punchestown on Wednesday where Duc de Beauchene and Eamon An Cnoic will be running on Wednesday and Thursday respectively, whilst I will be attending the sales there on Thursday evening. I always look forward to our visits to Ireland – the hospitality is outstanding and I would recommend it to anyone. I will only be staying a couple of days this time – I don’t think my liver could stand any more!

Finally, I would like to offer my congratulations to Raymond Alford (who’s other half, Gail has been in the office at Pond House since 1984) and our young amateur jockey on the success of Herbert Park at Eggesford point-to-point on Saturday. With the success of the Gerry Supple trained Skinflint at Stafford Cross on Sunday it was a successful week all round – well done all!

Thank you for following the fortunes of the yard throughout the season…see you next season!

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