- Monday, 24 February 2020 16:20
- Written by David Pipe
Despite the loss of another host of fixtures due to the adverse weather conditions last week, we did manage to hit the mark with the cosy success of Night Edition. With Cheltenham now only a fortnight away, the string continues in good form and we are currently on the 57 winner mark for the season.
Night Edition (pictured above) backed up a good run in a Grade 2 hurdle at Cheltenham last time where he finished second and went one place better to win at Ludlow on Wednesday. He travelled really well behind the leaders during the race and won quite cosily under a confident Tom Scudamore in the saddle. He now qualifies for Cheltenham and is likely to head to the Boodles Juvenile handicap hurdle on the Wednesday. Our four year old has progressed nicely with each of his three hurdle starts and he would not be without an each way chance. He was a cheap purchase from the Arqana French sales last summer and it a great for his owners Stuart and Simon Mercer and John Gent who are long term supporters of Pond House.
Exeter finally managed to host a meeting on Friday having been forced to abandon on each of the last two weekends but unfortunately there was no joy for the stable.
There are no runners for the Pond House team today and the next possibility of any racecourse action could come at Wincanton on Wednesday. The short-term weather forecast is not looking too bad so let’s hope for the best. Both Into The Woods and Huccaby hold entries there.
The rest of the week is looking fairly quiet but we do have a few horses engaged at our local track, Taunton on Thursday where the David Pipe Racing Club has three entries with Airton, Dusky Hercules and Little Red Lion all possible runners. The club is going well but we are always happy to have new members so please do get in touch if you are interested in getting involved for a small fee with lots of fun! Looking further ahead, next weekend’s top action comes from Doncaster, Newbury and Kelso.
Cheltenham Festival Handicaps
The ten Cheltenham Festival handicap race entries closed during the week and there are over twenty from Pond House. There is an overall entry of 928 which is the highest number since 2017. Of those, 340 are trained in Ireland and Gordon Elliott has 59 different horses entered while Willie Mullins has 38. The biggest field of entries can be found in my father’s race, the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys Handicap Hurdle on the Friday, the finale to the whole meeting. By contrast the smallest field of entries is in the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Handicap Chase where there are only 53! When you think that the maximum number of horses that can actually run in a Cheltenham race ranges from 20 to 28 there is a lot of horses entered that will not get a run. Our Festival handicap entries include horses such as Night Edition, Eden Du Houx, Eamon An Cnoic, Main Fact, Poker Play, Umbrigado, What a Moment and First Lord Du Cuet to name a few. The weights will be revealed this week so we will know a bit more about who is likely to get into which race after this.
Don’t forget, the Cheltenham Festival preview evenings are now upon us and I will be participating in the Exeter preview after racing on Tuesday 3rd March, Tiverton Golf Club on Thursday 5th March and at Taunton racecourse on Friday 6th March. Tickets are available from their respective websites with the Tiverton evening in aid of Children’s Hospice South West. They should be a bit of fun and I will try my best to steer you in the direction of a winner or two so do try to get along.
Familiar Faces
I was delighted to secure a new horse last week when Wayne Clifford purchased Home Farm House (a five year old daughter of Winged Love who was the winner of her only start in an Irish point-to-point) at the Cheltenham Sales and sent her to me to train. Her arrival marks a welcome return to the Clifford’s who we have enjoyed plenty of success with in the past, whilst they generously sponsored our yard for nine years prior to our current sponsors W&S. I am very pleased to have them back on our owners’ portfolio and hope that we can enjoy many more victories together.
Twickenham Trip
I enjoyed a trip with Leanne to see England beat Ireland in the 6 Nations rugby at Twickenham on Sunday courtesy of Richard at Eurobale. In the stands next to me were fellow trainers Andrew Balding and James Fanshawe and it was great to catch up with them and I was even able to compare notes on father’s with Andrew! England put up a good performance to beat the Irish and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time. Many thanks to Richard for his kind hospitality.
Mental Health Matters
Racing said its farewells to former jumps jockey James Banks last Wednesday. While I didn’t know James personally, National Hunt racing is a close knit community and his death, which occurred in tragic circumstances, has hit the racing world hard. Racing does have an excellent support network so I urge anyone with any issues to seek help if needed. Racing Welfare is the body that does a great job for anyone who works in racing while an organisation called Sporting Chance works closely with jockeys specifically.
