- Monday, 22 February 2016 16:58
- Written by David Pipe
The countdown is well and truly on now with Cheltenham only three weeks away and the festival preview season looming. With all that in mind I am pleased that the horses are continuing in good form. Another couple of winners on the week took our seasonal tally onto 58, although there was a certain degree of frustration as we repeatedly hit the crossbar at the weekend with no less than four seconds on Saturday including in the big races at Ascot and Haydock.
- Monday, 15 February 2016 16:32
- Written by David Pipe
The good form of the stable continued last week with Navanman scoring twice within the space of four days and in the process completing a quick-fire hat-trick with victories at Fakenham and Wetherby, while there were also notable performances from a number others, not least Starchitect who posted an excellent first effort for the stable when runner-up in the Betfair Hurdle on Saturday. With the Cheltenham Festival now only four weeks away it is encouraging to see the horses performing creditably.
- Monday, 08 February 2016 15:31
- Written by David Pipe
Sadly the weather continues to take its toll on the fixtures list and those meetings that do manage to go ahead are having to contend with extremely testing conditions – unless you are in the most northerly parts of Britain as I was yesterday (Sunday) when I paid a visit to Musselburgh. Even then I couldn’t escape the elements with rain throughout the day turning the ground soft – it was certainly one of the soggier birthdays I can recall! Although I have plenty of horses that appreciate some cut in the ground, the prevailing conditions at most venues (despite the best and valiant efforts of the racecourse ground staff) are just horrible and it is not easy to find suitable opportunities for them all.
- Monday, 01 February 2016 16:47
- Written by David Pipe
A couple of winners on the week courtesy of Doctor Harper (pictured above) and Taj Badalandabad kept the scoreboard ticking over and at the time of writing our seasonal tally stands at 52. With Cheltenham Festival Trials day already in the rear view mirror, the focus now switches to the big event itself which is now only six weeks away. As you can tell from the countdown timer on the left-hand side of every one of my web pages, the entire season is geared towards the Cheltenham Festival which is to all intents and purposes the ‘Olympics of horseracing’.
- Monday, 25 January 2016 15:57
- Written by David Pipe
Last week was certainly an exciting one for the Pond House team! Not only did it provide us with our 50th winner of the campaign when Pilgrims Bay (pictured above) landed a thriller at Wincanton, but we also bolstered our numbers with the arrival of our third child, Martha Charlotte Pipe who was born on Friday 22nd January.
- Monday, 18 January 2016 16:29
- Written by David Pipe
The cold, wet weather continues to run amok with fixtures abandoned left, right and centre and bottomless ground is very much the norm at present. It is unsurprising therefore that it was a quiet end to the week for us with our last runners coming on Wednesday while that trend is likely to continue through the early part of this week with no runners this afternoon at Plumpton, while Exeter have already abandoned their meeting scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday).
- Monday, 11 January 2016 16:48
- Written by David Pipe
The weather continues to play havoc with the going and the fixture list and looking ahead it looks as though we are in for more of the same and we could be thin on the ground with action for this week. Still, a winner last week courtesy of Mount Haven (pictured above) took us onto the 49 winner mark for the campaign and I hope it is not long before we are celebrating our seasonal half century.
