Winners & Cheltenham Week

    Royal Mer Recent Winner Wincanton

I am of course writing on the eve of the 2026 Cheltenham Festival and we have an exciting week of racing ahead.  I shall be at Cheltenham every day and we are looking forward to welcoming lots of guests to our hospitality marquee each day.  Matt Chapman will be running through the cards with me with the tips each day and we will try to find as many winners as we can! 

Unfortunately, both our horses in the Fred Winter were balloted out so no runners on Tuesday for the team, nor on Wednesday as No Walkover also missed the cut for the Champion Bumper by one.  They have reserves for the handicap races but not for the rest, it begs the question if they should have reserves in all the races in the future.  We certainly would have been a reserve and been prepared to take our chance should any horse have dropped out before Wednesday.  No Walkover is now likely to head to Aintree for the Bumper next month.

It seems this year that the Festival races have been harder to get in than has been the trend in recent years.  We keep strong records here at Pond House and historically we know roughly what is likely to get in after the confirmation stages but not this time around.  There will be several trainers a little gutted, like us that their horses have not made the final fields, some very well fancied horses are either sitting as reserve or have indeed been balloted out.

We will definitely have two runners at Cheltenham on Thursday however, Kingston Queen will run in the mare’s novices hurdle with Jack Tudor on board and Gericault Roque will run in the Kim Muir handicap chase with top Irish amateur Brian Lawless in the saddle.  All the talk is about Bambino Fever in the mare’s novices hurdle and while she may prove very difficult to beat we are certainly going to give it a good go to beat her!  In an ideal world we would probably like more rain as she is running over her minimum trip but she is very versatile with regards to ground and so it won’t be a big inconvenience whatever it ends up being.  She has a wonderful attitude, lots of ability and is a cracking each way price. 

Gericault Roque has been very fragile in recent times since picking up a tendon injury when finishing third in the December Gold Cup at Newbury in November 2022 and hasn’t run many times since but he ran a cracking race to be second last time in a competitive race Ascot.  He seems to be in great form at home and he finished second in the Ultima handicap chase four years ago at the Festival and has the class to feature on Thursday.  With a bit of luck he also has a very good each way chance.

Away from Cheltenham this week we have runners at Huntingdon on Wednesday, Saccary and Best Night and on Friday we could be heading to Fakenham with Cinammon Coco who missed the cut in the Fred Winter but could make his stable debut at the Norfolk track. 

At the weekend we have Thanksforthehelp and Jurancon entered at Uttoxeter on Saturday and on Sunday, Walkadina and Jaipaletemps have entries at Chepstow.  Keep checking the Daily News on the website for all the latest news on the stable runners.

While we are obviously looking forward to the week ahead, it was a good week for the yard over recent days with the horses in good form and some winners along the way.  Royal Mer made it back to back course wins at Wincanton on Thursday with another fine display of jumping under Rian Corcoran.  We were a little worried by the drying ground but he coped with this well stepping back up in trip to 2m4f and he looked comfortable throughout.  It was a competitive little race and it was a nice performance from our eight-year-old who was winning for the seventh time over fences since arriving from France.  There are no immediate plans for him at present and they will largely be determined about any rain that falls in the coming weeks.  Penn Avenue ran well at Wincanton to finish third and will be winning over hurdles soon.

Harry Junior returned from a winter break with a nice front running performance to win at Exeter on Friday with Jack Tudor on board.  He is a six-year-old but is relatively lightly raced and has been quite backward so I think there is more to come from him as he is still learning, especially as a chaser next year.   He led the field at a merry dance before the well-fancied favourite came to challenge up the home straight but he fended that one off in a tight battle up the run in.  Her prefers better ground and will be running again in the not too distant future.

Our juvenile, Way of Stars got his first win over hurdles at Taunton on Monday afternoon in the colours of Jopla racing but more about that next week!

Jack’s First Winner

               Jack & Little Chiefy

On Sunday it was a family outing to Charlton Horethorne point to point and I am a very proud dad after Jack won his first race pony racing.  This was just his fourth ride but effectively only his second proper ride as the pony he had last year was not a racing pony and he was never competitive.  We acquired Little Chiefy from Ireland before Christmas and after making his debut at Cocklebarrow in January and finishing fourth the pair have learnt a lot from that experience and progressed to run a very good race and win yesterday.  The course, near Wincanton, was shrouded in thick fog all morning and at one point it was actually abandoned on safety grounds but then the fog lifted a little and it was decided it could go ahead and we are glad it did!  Jack got the start right this time and while we couldn’t see a lot because of the fog there was a prolonged duel inside the final few furlongs with the other joint favourite and Jack just edged on towards the line.  This race was over 7F and the pony will be better over longer trips when they have the races but it was a nice performance by horse and jockey.  They have to finish in the first three at another point to point meeting so they qualify for the racecourse series which starts in the Spring and he has an entry at Buckfastleigh this coming Sunday so we will see how things go this week but he is likely to run there all being well.  We have had so many messages congratulating Jack and he was particularly chuffed to get one form A P McCoy and Jamie Spencer to name a couple!  I enjoy and appreciate every winner but this one was just that extra bit special and I hope there is more to come.

Enjoy Cheltenham everyone!