- Monday, 03 September 2012 15:56
- Written by David Pipe
Premier Dane has now won three from three since joining Pond house and he has been a real star. At the age 10 we were not sure if he had any improvement in him but he certainly has and has been great for us and his owners the Hush Hush partnership. He holds an entry in the Kerry National at Listowel later this month. He has 9st 10lb in the weights and it is quite possible he may head to Ireland next. Ashbrittle was just pipped for second place on the line to finish third behind Premier Dane and he is another who ran a fine race. He had a little trouble exiting the stalls on his last flat outing at York but was in good form yesterday and but for getting hampered at the third last he may well have held on for second place. He could next return to the flat for the Cesarewitch in October.
Premier Dane
I was delighted with the success of Shoegazer in the big handicap chase of the day. If you remember he took a nasty fall at Newton Abbot last time when holding every chance at the second last. We did plenty of work with him in the loose school and popped him over a few fences and he jumped as well as he had ever done yesterday and then showed real guts to hold off the challenge of stable companion Enfant De Lune who also ran a super race. Enfant probably ran a career best and with Conor O’Farrell in the saddle and he will continue to mix chasing and hurdling over the coming months. It was especially nice for all connections of Shoegazer as Wayne and Sarah Clifford of Bathwick Tyres put a lot into our sport through sponsoring races as well as sponsoring my yard. They had a fantastic weekend after they won the big race at Chester on Saturday as well with Verse of Love trained by David Evans. This was especially nice as the horse owned by Wayne was bred by Sarah! This was Shoegazer’s fourth win of the season and he is now returning home for a much deserved short holiday before returning to us to run again in the New Year.
Our treble was completed by Too Generous in the Bumper. Our filly dead heated when winning a bumper at Worcester on her racecourse debut showing a really good attitude which she showed once again yesterday. She was bought by some of my existing owners before her run yesterday and it is brilliant to give them a nice winner on her first run for them. It was not a great race but she could do no more than win and we will have a look at the races coming up for her but it is quite likely she will now switch her attention to hurdling. She is a lovely, tough genuine filly who I am looking forward to running over the winter as she is sure to appreciate hurdles and a bit further in time. I am pleased to report that all of the horses have returned home safe and well have been out enjoying a pick of grass in the glorious sunshine we have today!
Too Generous
Referring to the weather it is amazing to think that we had 172mm of rain in August. That is the wettest August we have had in over 11 years at Pond House, with our next highest total for the month being 102mm in 2004. I only hope that all this rain now does not mean there will be none in November/December time as I would hate to think the ground would be quick at that time of year but everything seems possible these days! We have now had nearly 800mm for the eight months this year which is far more than we had in the whole of 2011!
Looking ahead for this week there is no jumps action until Wednesday when we have a few entries at Hereford and running plans will be decided by the going report tomorrow. I am fairly quiet for the rest of the week with just two entries at Stratford on Saturday. Prime Design is entered in the seller and His Excellency could well top the weights in the valuable handicap hurdle. I do have a few entries on the flat later in the week and War Singer and Martial Law are quite likely to run at Haydock on Friday. War Singer is entered in the 1m2f handicap after not seeming to appreciate to drop back in trip on his latest outing at Goodwood. Martial Law could run in the 1m6f handicap. He ran a cracker on his flat debut for me at Ascot and he has already won a couple of hurdle races as well so are looking forward to seeing him run again.
Away from the horses I hear there is a big sporting event on Sunday not to be missed! A West Country stable lad’s football team is taking on the visitors from Newmarket in Minehead at 12 noon. Some of our lads are playing in the team alongside players from the Philip Hobbs, Paul Nicholls, and Victor Dartnall yards. We believe the Newmarket team is fairly good so it should be an interesting game! We are also not doing too badly in another team game, skittles! We were invited to take on a fairly professional league team and we beat them so we may have to make this a regular occurrence.
We have breaking news about an exciting new addition to one of our staff families. I would like to pass on my congratulations to Oliver and Eileen who have just given birth to baby Elliot this afternoon. We are pleased that mother and baby are doing well. Oliver is one of our assistants and Eileen has looked after many good horses over the years including our Grand National winner Comply or Die and Cheltenham Festival winner Buena Vista to name a couple.
On this note I will just finish by saying what a great team of staff and horses we have for the coming season. We have many members both equine and human that have been at Pond House for many years but we also have some exciting new talent and I am looking forward to telling you more about them over the coming weeks and the countdown is well and truly on for the jumping season to start in earnest.
