- Monday, 09 July 2012 15:41
- Written by David Pipe
It’s been a dramatic week on the sporting front with the Wimbledon Finals taking place alongside the British Grand Prix and we had a bit of drama of our own at Worcester last Wednesday! Unfortunately Qalinas missed a winning opportunity in the conditional jockeys’ handicap hurdle with a shuddering mistake two out with the race seemingly at his mercy.
Ironically enough he jumped the flight extremely well but just knuckled on landing. His nose hit the ground and he did well to stand up, however it cost him all momentum and having gone into the hurdle 6 lengths clear, he came out of it about 4 lengths down. Although he closed valiantly on the winner all the way to the line he was unable to get back up and finished a very unlucky second under Tom Bellamy. He is certainly deserving of a change of luck and hopefully he will be able to get a win against his name before too long.
It just goes to illustrate the downs and ups of racing as only half an hour later we enjoyed a change of fortune with the success of Decoy in the handicap hurdle under an enterprising ride from Tom Scudamore. Tom managed to nick a few lengths on him at the start and he never relinquished that advantage despite appearing to idle a little in the closing stages.
Talking of winners, I am hopeful that our latest purchases from the Arqana Summer Sales at Deauville last week are able to follow in the footsteps of their illustrious stablemates Grands Crus, Gevrey Chambertin, Kazlian, Dynaste and co. who have also gone under the Arqana hammer. We came back with some very nice store horses as well as a multiple winning hurdler and chaser in Garynella.
The trip to France for the Summer Sales has turned into something of an annual excursion and I cannot deny that I always look forward to it. We are regularly joined by a number of friends and we have a great time at the excellent hotels sampling some great food and drink among wonderful company…roll on next year!
Above: Miinnehoma (left) pictured with Comply Or Die at a recent Pond House Open Day
I am greatly saddened to inform you that we have lost one Pond House legend as 1994 Grand National winner Miinnehoma passed away peacefully of old age at the weekend – he was 29. He was the oldest living winner of the world’s greatest steeplechase and was a regular at Aintree for the popular parade of former winners.
During his career Miinnehoma, who was owned by comedy genius Freddie Starr, won eleven of his twenty five starts including the Listed Philip Cornes Sadle of Gold Hurdle at Newbury in 1990 (where he slammed subsequent Champion Chaser Remittance Man by 12 lengths), the Grade One Sun Alliance Chase (beating Bradbury Star and stablemate Run For Free) at the 1992 Cheltenham Festival and the Grade Two Newton Chase at Haydock in 1995. He was also placed in other top races including the Welsh National and Cheltenham Gold Cup, but he will always be most famously remembered for providing my father with his Grand National victory under Richard Dunwoody. He was a wonderful old horse – a real character and he remained at the yard under the care of our former head lad until the very end…he was a great champion and will be missed by all associated with him.
Talking of great champions, I enjoyed the Wimbledon finals at the weekend and while it was a shame that Andy Murray couldn’t win that last match he has done extremely well to reach the final 76 years after the last British man. Roger Federer and Serena Williams are both extremely deserving multiple champions and should be congratulated on their seventh and fifth (respectively) singles titles.
Sadly the Brits weren’t able to manage it at Silverstone either, but it just goes to demonstrate the indomitable spirit of the British public as they put up with downpours all weekend to support the home drivers. The British race goer is cut from much the same cloth(and let’s face it, they need to be) – despite Newton Abbot being cancelled today, I am hoping that we will have some runners at Worcester on Wednesday if they can survive the elements. Failing that good ex-French flat performer War Singer is engaged on the level at Newbury on Friday, while we also have entries at Market Rasen on Sunday. You can keep up to date with all of the latest news on the stable’s runners by checking Chester’s Daily Chat…
