Festival Focus

We are down to the last week before the Cheltenham Festival and the winners continue to flow from the yard and I was thrilled with the victories of Poole Master and Balgarry last week.  Both could be lively contenders at the Cheltenham Festival next week.

Poole Master (pictured left) stretched his unbeaten run this season to three with an impressive success under a double penalty at Newbury on Friday in the hands of regular rider Chris Honour.  The step up in trip certainly seemed to suit him well and he will run next at the Cheltenham Festival where he has multiple engagements, although the Coral Cup is looking most likely at this stage.

Balgarry was another to produce a fine performance when scoring on his debut for the stable (on his first start in 557 days) at the Berkshire track on Saturday.  He was given a canny ride by conditional jockey Conor O’Farrell who kept enough up his sleeve to score cosily from a mark of 129.  He is another who could go to Cheltenham next week and he will certainly be well treated under a penalty, although there is always the dreaded unsubstantiated and unquantifiable “bounce factor” that he needs to avoid next time.  He has entries in the Coral Cup and the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle.

Dan Breen and Junior also ran excellent races on Saturday to be denied in photo finishes and I was particularly pleased to see Junior prove himself competitive from a
handicap mark of 153 at Doncaster in the Grimthorpe Handicap Chase.  I thought that this was a very good trial for the Grand National at Aintree – he was sticking on tenaciously in the closing stages and looks like he will appreciate every yard of the Grand National trip.  Much has been made of his jumping technique, but I do not envisage any problems with him getting around Aintree – he has jumped some of the biggest tracks in the country and certainly knows how to look after himself.

Meanwhile, Dan Breen is another that could be going to the Festival next week.  Being a versatile sort, he has entries over timber as well as fences.  He is rated almost a
stone lower over hurdles, so could well end up competing over the smaller obstacles.  Also on the Festival front, we have decided to go for the Fred Winter with exciting juvenile hurdler Kazlian (pictured right), who has won his last two starts at Ffos Las and Leicester in impressive fashion.   He will be left in the Triumph Hurdle at the five day stage in order to allow for all eventualities, but the handicap is his intended engagement.

I am due to be conducting a live Twitter Chat on the Racing Post this evening (Monday) and I am sure that there will be plenty of questions about my Cheltenham prospects.  I would be grateful if potential tweeters are gentle with me and don’t ask me where Grands Crus runs…the answer is still the same I’m afraid!  I will be on-line from 7.30pm this evening…that is of course if child number two does not arrive in the interim as my partner Leanne is currently in labour.

I participated in another thoroughly enjoyable Cheltenham preview evening at Wincanton racecourse last Thursday, while I will be conducting an interview for the Hamilton evening on Saturday – fortunately this one will only be on the phone!

I spoke with Mike Vince at our recent Press Day and you can hear my thoughts on our Cheltenham Festival team by clicking below.

Audio - mp3 - David Pipe Looks ahead To Cheltenham 2012

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Mike also managed to catch up with my father and he had a few ideas of his own - you can hear what he has to say by clicking below.  Over the coming days as we count down to the Festival I will be adding the views of the jockeys that were also on hand.

Audio - mp3 - Martin Pipe Looks ahead To Cheltenham 2012

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These are exciting times at Pond House, so don’t forget to keep in touch with events by visiting Chester’s Chat everyday!