A Great Win for Kepagge!

Another three winners have flowed in the last week taking our season winners total to 68 and I am delighted to horses continue in good form. Our first runner of last week was Koi Dodville and he put in a lovely performance to win for the first time over fences. There may have only been three runners but we were the outsider of the field and it was a good effort. He has returned from a mini winter break in good form and hopefully there is a bit more to come.

Koi Dodville was ridden by Gearoid Harney and it was a brilliant first winner for him riding for Pond House. He joined the team only last month and this was only his second ride for me. He is a big tall lad but rides well and is a good horse man. On joining us, we encouraged and helped get him his point to point licence and he has been getting on well in action at the weekends as well. He rode a winner at Buckfastleigh over the weekend and is gathering value experience with in the pointing field which in invaluable going forwards.  He has now ridden five winners from 35 rides under rules in total this season.

Koi Dodville carries the silks of the David Pipe Racing Club and they had two consecutive winners last week when Dindin won for them at Wincanton with Philip Armson on board. Although it was not a high quality race it was a deserved victory for our consistent ten year old.  Both he and Koi Dodville have come out of their races well and hold entries at Leicester at the end of this week and could run again.

Our third winner of the week came courtesy of Kepagge winning at Ffos Las on Sunday. The application of a first time visor helped him travel and concentrate and he was always doing enough in the closing stages under Fergus Gillard. After showing a good level of form as a novice he has had a troubled passage with setbacks and so it was lovely to reward the patience of owner Sarah Ling.  He had been showing us all the right signs at home so it was nice for him to go and do it on the track. 

   

Our race record for the last week is 13 runners and from that it has yielded three winners, two seconds, two thirds and a fourth so I am delighted with the form of the horses. We were also perhaps a little unlucky not to have another winner on Sunday with Ya Know Yaseff at Huntingdon as well. She was travelling ominously well when stumbling on landing at the third last fence and she a Philip Armson parted company. American Sniper bounced back to form with a super effort under a double penalty to be second at Newbury while Bashful Boy could not follow up under his penalty on the flat at Lingfield but still ran with great credit to be second.

 

This Week

 

With rain yet to arrive we are still waiting with many horses in the wings with those that like the quicker conditions continuing to fly the flag. We are proudly supporting the Grand Military Gold Cup at Sandown on Tuesday and I shall be in attendance as a guest of Princess Anne. On Friday we have entries at Exeter but they have abandoned their Chases with an all hurdles card scheduled instead. I do believe there is some welcome rain forecast this week so we will keep our fingers crossed and see what happens.  Keep checking the daily news for more updates on our runners.

 

Cheltenham

 

With just over one week to go until the start of the Cheltenham Festival I am doing a couple of Cheltenham Preview evenings this week. There was a good turnout for the one I did at Tiverton Golf Club last week while this week I shall be appearing at Bath on Tuesday and I am part-taking in a Virtual Evening with the Value Racing Club on Friday. I am quite relaxed about Cheltenham this year, I would love to be having lots of runners next week but we will just have a handful of horses heading to Prestbury Park but hopefully with live chances. Thanksforthehelp will head to the Pertemps final while Remastered could run in the Ultima, as could new recruit Iceo Madrick should he get in. Thomas Mor may head to the Albert Bartlett on Friday while Jilaijone could run in the Fred Winter should he get in.  Sizing Pottsie is entered in the Grand Annual on Wednesday but he is likely to go to Ayr at the weekend for a confidence boosting hurdle run and then we will see about Cheltenham after this.  He is a horses who wants bottomless ground to be at his best and unfortunately we had not had this at all for him as the season as worked out.

 

Happy Birthday Sophie

 

I would like to wish my eldest daughter Sophie a very happy 11th birthday on 6^th March. She enjoyed having friends for a sleepover at the weekend and they went shopping and had lunch. Sophie loves baking and having made me a carrot cake for my birthday, she has made herself a red velvet one which I am very much looking forward to tasting later!!

 

Tom Scu Tribute

 

Thank you to owner Mick Gough and Jane Cunningham for sending us their Tom Scu tribute below.  If anyone else would like to get in touch with any thoughts we would be delighted to hear from you: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Mick Gough

We entered into horse ownership never expecting to have a winner. We just wanted fun and an interesting experience.

For us as small time owners to have a horse ridden by an ultimate professional was all we could ever wish. Attention to detail, excellent feedback and never an error. The thrill when Tom rode Teaser for his first win will never be replicated.

Every time we had a winner, I had a framed photograph made to hang on the living room wall. Needless to say, there are far more pictures of Tom adorning the house, than either my wife or son????????

Thanks Tom for being a significant player in helping dreams to be realised.

 

Jane Cunningham

Please tell Tom a heartfelt Thankyou from Guy and I for all Tom’s amazing rides and memories.

Guy particularly was ecstatic on his wins on Heure to Glorie.

So pleased he is retiring now safely, with a future to come.