- Monday, 30 June 2025 12:47
- Written by David Pipe
The Wexford Sand Gallop
Ocean Heights and Bashful Boy both ran well in their respective races on the flat at Newbury last week to finish third. Bashful Boy looked the winner until the final 100 yards but was overtaken towards the line and while a little frustrating it was nice to see him bounce back after a lesser effort last time and he showed that hopefully his winning turn will not be too far away.
Our only other runners last week came at Worcester on Wednesday and it turned into a day to forget. Micronormous got no further than the first fence but is thankfully none the worse for the fall but sadly we lost Seymourjohn later in the day following a fall over hurdles. He rather dived at the obstacle and suffered a fatal injury, which he would have known nothing about. We all know these things can happen but it does not make it any easier when it does. Our thoughts are with Bex who looked after him and all our members of the David Pipe Racing club whose colours he carried.
This Week
Our first runners of this week will be back at Worcester on Wednesday where we have three declared and Jack Tudor is on board all of them. Jaipaletemps is looking to go one place better than a good second at the track last time out. On the current ground, he should appreciate the step up in trip to 2m4f this time. He bumped into a well-treated rival the last day and hopefully there is not a similar sort in this field. Chemical Warfare runs in the 2m7f handicap chase and after a fantastic season, he was a little disappointing last time. That was over hurdles and he will appreciate returning to fences this time. Hammer Dan completes our trio of runners and he returned to action last time with a good second at Newton Abbot. If he can build on that effort I would hope he has a very good chance on Wednesday.
Later in the week, we have entries at Newton Abbot on Friday so keep checking the Daily News on the website for all the latest news on the stable runners.
Royal Ascot
I enjoyed three days at Royal Ascot and the other two days watching the action from the comfort of the sofa although it was difficult to find the winners from whatever vantage point I had! On Tuesday, I had a ‘lads’ day out in the company of Tom Malone and Gerry Supple while on Thursday myself and Jack had a slightly more sensible afternoon. On Saturday, Leanne and I were kindly invited as guests of Martin Cruddace and were lucky to have air conditioning in one of the boxes. It was a great week of racing and I do enjoy the tradition of the Royal meeting. You get to catch up with various friends and owners and there was a lot of the National Hunt fraternity there, jockeys and fellow trainers, especially on the Tuesday.
Last Week
Last week, I was in charge of the house, children and dogs as Leanne had gone away for a few days to Portugal on a girl’s holiday. Thankfully, the kids are getting more grown up and independent but we did have one little blip when the girls hadn’t woken up and it was a rather rushed a tearful time getting ready for school that morning but they made it in time! Doug the dog didn’t steal any food or chew up anything either so all in all it was a successful week!
French Sales
Leanne and I are off to the Arqana Deauville sales on Monday evening where there is a nice mix of youngsters, raced and unraced up for sale during the week. We have picked out a short list of horses we like from the catalogue and look forward to seeing them in the flesh. If anyone would like to know more about, the sales please do get in touch with the office, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Jockey News
Gearoid Harney and I have had a chat and he is moving onto pastures new in the very near future. He is unfortunately not allowed to have is jockeys licence back or ride out in a licensed yard following his head injury earlier this year. While he still unsure of his long term plans, he is moving closer to family and friends for the time being.
Martin McIntyre went to see specialists in Cardiff last week about is shoulder, which is not healing as well as hoped following a fall at Ludlow in April. They did not operate initially and there is a chance surgery may be required still yet but he has to give it a little more time before they will decide. While frustrating, ‘Fly’ is at least not missing too much on the riding front at present.
Rian Corcoran has been over to France and is now back. He rode out at a few different yards which included Noel George, Hugo Merienne and Louisa Carberry and it was a great experience for him and Ed Vaughn who also went over. Rian is now heading off to Gordon Elliott’s for a couple of weeks before doing his conditional jockeys course next month.
Sporting Success
Martha is continuing to do well and came home from her school sports day with three first places and a third. Her victories came in the high jump, target throwing and 100m sprint. She was third in the sack race with more practice needed! There was no pony shows for us this weekend but she has more planned in the coming weeks. She has already requested Jack to be her runner next time as I was not quick enough when we went to Cutcombe horse show. I wonder where she gets her competitiveness from?!
