- Monday, 16 December 2019 16:20
- Written by David Pipe
It’s a good job we had recently undergone training with the defibrillator! With the last gasp success of Warthog (pictured above) in the feature Caspian Caviar Gold Cup at Cheltenham on Saturday and the eventful victory of Kepagge at Leicester the Wednesday before that, there were certainly a few heart-stopping moments!
On very testing ground, Kepagge (pictured right) slipped into the first flight, scaring himself and he never jumped with the fluency he had shown in his schooling at home thereafter. Tom Scudamore did very well to maintain the partnership after a serious mistake at the second and a slow leap at the third. Fortunately, Kepagge is a horse with an abundance of natural ability and he warmed to his task as the race went on and he was still able to win comfortably despite these errors. It is my job to find the horses the easiest opportunity and in this instance I certainly upheld my end of the bargain, although retrospectively, he would probably have benefitted from a bigger field and stronger pace.
Luckily, I had sent videos of his schooling sessions to his owner, Sarah Ling prior to the race and she could see how good he had been! He remains an exciting prospect and is certainly capable of better.
Kepagge was our first winner of the week, but the horses continued to run well with Nordic Combined finishing fourth in a very competitive handicap hurdle at Cheltenham on Friday and he richly deserves to get his head in front in one of these contests. Champers On Ice was a close third in the staying handicap hurdle, keeping on very resolutely once headed in the closing stages. He is clearly in great form with himself at present and should continue to give a good account of himself. Eamon An Cnoic was a good second in the two mile handicap chase on the Saturday and will continue to give a good account of himself in all of these quality races.
Warthog’s Big Saturday Success!
Things were to get a whole lot better still…Warthog provided the team with a well-deserved success in the big race at Cheltenham, the Caspian Caviar Gold. The dashing grey, ridden by David Noonan was prominent throughout and jumping beautifully, he surged into the lead turning for home with a seemingly decisive move. Headed at the last, I thought he was destined for a place, but digging deep, he found enough on the run to the line to force his head back in front again and land a seemingly unlikely victory from Spiritofthegames. This was by far the biggest success of jockey David Noonan’s career and he was clearly ecstatic.
Owned by Bryan Drew and Caroline Tisdall, it was a fairytale result for Caroline who was celebrating her birthday. This victory moved us onto the 44 winner mark for the season, thus equalling our total from the whole of last term.
Meanwhile, over at Hereford Buster Edwards put up a personal best when landing the staying handicap hurdle under Nick Scholfield meaning that we eclipsed last season’s tally. He handled the testing ground well and was always doing enough to land his second race of the campaign. He has given owner Jon Williams and his family some great fun and should be winning more races for him. Nick Scholfield has a tremendous record when riding for the yard. During this season and last he has had six rides, won on three of them and finished in the frame on the other three.
The Week Ahead
Following the abandonment of Lingfield’s Tuesday card our first runners of the week will not come until Thursday at the earliest when we have entries at Exeter. Among those are David Pipe Racing Club horses Great Tempo and Little Red Lion. If you haven’t already joined the club, you can find out more details about it here…
Israel Champ could bid to give us back-to-back successes in the Listed bumper at Ascot on Friday following the success of Eden du Houx last year. He was a good winner of a similar contest at Cheltenham’s November meeting and is a very exciting prospect.
There are good cards at Ascot and Haydock on Saturday. Ascot’s fixture features the Long Walk Hurdle and Betfair Exchange handicap hurdle. Umbrigado is an intended runner in the latter. He ran a promising race when fifth on his reappearance in the fiercely competitive Stayers handicap hurdle at Haydock at the end of last month. He has plenty of speed and will not be inconvenienced by dropping back in trip.
At Haydock, Daklondike could bid to repeat his success of last year in the Tommy Whittle Gold Cup, whilst Mr Clarkson and Dell’ Arca are also entered on the card.
John Doble
Last week was a notable one as John Doble decided to hang-up his jodhpurs at the age of 78. John is an owner at Pond House as well as a marvellous racing and racehorse enthusiast who has ridden out with the string on a number of occasions down the years.
He used to participate in point-to-points after his University days and has maintained his interest ever since, be it through ownership or riding out for several trainers. He could often be seen on the Pond House gallops riding upsides 17 year old up and coming amateur rider Fergus Gillard and it would be difficult to decide who had the more youthful vigour of the pair!
A scholar at school, John enjoyed a distinguished career at the Foreign Office and is also a well-travelled explorer, mountaineer and polymath. More than that, he is lovely gentleman.
Fortunately we will still see plenty of John as he is involved in various partnerships at the yard, including Huccaby who ran at Warwick on Thursday. Below he is pictured with his old work riding companion, Fergus who was riding Huccaby.
Xmas Party
We enjoyed our annual Christmas party last Thursday evening. This year the event was held at the Pitcher & Piano in Taunton and we all enjoyed a lovely three-course dinner, a few drinks, good company and a bit of music. It was an enjoyable evening (and a surprisingly sensible affair), with one or two of the guests even being clear-headed enough to be taking in the unfolding events of the General Election! Stable jockey Tom Scudamore even managed to join us and tucked into a hearty dinner – fortunately for him, he didn’t have to ride at a light weight the following day!
Thank you to all of the owners who contributed towards the party for the staff - they appreciate that many of the team will be in to work over the Christmas period as the horses still need to be fed, mucked out and exercised.
