- Monday, 13 April 2015 13:23
- Written by David Pipe
Soll leaving Aintree admiring Oliver Sherwood's lorry!
As always Aintree provides a great carnival type atmosphere for their three day Grand National meeting and it remains a fitting late season celebration of British racing. While every trainer prepares their charges with Cheltenham as their primary objective, to score at Aintree is a memorable achievement and to land a Grand National is what dreams are made of and with that in mind I would like to pass on my sincerest congratulations to Oliver Sherwood, Leighton Aspell and the connections of Grand National winner Many Clouds.
- Monday, 06 April 2015 11:18
- Written by David Pipe
With Aintree nearly upon us I am delighted the yard continues in good form. I have not had that many runners in the last week but with three winners, three seconds, two thirds and a fourth from 10 runners I could not be happier as we look forward to Thursday.
- Monday, 30 March 2015 12:46
- Written by David Pipe
Soll on target for Grand National
Last week was a fairly low key one for the yard with just a handful of runners and while drawing a blank, we hit the crossbar on a number of occasions. The horses continue in decent form and gives cause for optimism as the Grand National meeting at Aintree approaches. The quiet spell was due in part to a lack of suitable opportunities for our horses, readying our Aintree runners and letting down a number of others in preparation for their summer holidays – take it from me, there is still plenty going on behind the scenes!
- Monday, 23 March 2015 16:39
- Written by David Pipe
One of the recurring themes of this season has been the prolonged good form of the horses from Pond House and another four successes last week took our tally to 110 and maintained our advantage as the winning-most trainer numerically of the campaign. This is the best season we have enjoyed since my first year at the helm during 2006/7 but while there are nice prizes to be won at Aintree and Sandown, I already have one eye on next term with the aim of making another good start.
- Monday, 16 March 2015 16:56
- Written by David Pipe
Can you believe it? There are only another 360 days to go until the start of the Cheltenham Festival!!! I can only consider the 2015 running of the greatest jumps meeting in the world as an enormous success – two winners for the yard is precisely double what I would have settled for at the beginning of the meeting and with a further three finishing runner-up it has to be considered a job well done and I would like to extend my grateful thanks to my owners, stable sponsors Bathwick Tyres for their continued support and my team at Pond House for their efforts.
- Monday, 09 March 2015 15:20
- Written by David Pipe
Unsurprisingly given it was the final week before the Cheltenham Festival, last week was a quiet one on the runners front with just Great Choice running at Exeter on Tuesday prior to a handful of runners at Sandown during their two day meeting and a sole runner at Chepstow on Saturday.
- Monday, 02 March 2015 16:03
- Written by David Pipe
It was another good week for the stable with four more winners taking us through the magical century mark for the season. At the start of each campaign I always set myself a clear and challenging goal – 100 winners, £1 million in prize money and a Cheltenham Festival winner. If I satisfy all of those objectives I consider it to be a very successful season. To some a Cheltenham winner is not the be-all and end-all, although it is the very pinnacle of our sport – the Olympics of racing if you like, and so I would be surprised if any of my counterparts did not aspire to winning at the Festival.
- Monday, 23 February 2015 16:51
- Written by David Pipe
The countdown to the Cheltenham Festival continues apace and it is hard to believe that as I write this there is only a fortnight to go. Predictably it is going to be a frenetic two weeks as I put the finish preparations for the horses, decide upon the most suitable target for each and that is before I get onto the Cheltenham Preview tour that also starts next week. This year I will be appearing on the panel for the Saunton Sands Hotel (2nd March), Exeter racecourse (3rd March) and Taunton racecourse (6th March), as well as conducting a telephone interview for the Scottish preview on 3rd March.
- Monday, 16 February 2015 16:48
- Written by David Pipe
Another good week for the stable was bookended by wins at Plumpton on Monday and an across the card treble at Ascot and Haydock on Saturday. A total of five winners during the course of the week took our seasonal tally to 94 and now with only three weeks to go until the start of the Cheltenham Festival, we are putting the finishing touches to the horses’ preparations and just keeping everything ticking over and all our fingers and toes firmly crossed!
- Monday, 09 February 2015 16:52
- Written by David Pipe
Unless you have been living on a different planet over the past seven days, you will no doubt be aware that there have been some major racing stories, some of which have caused ripples in the ante-post markets for the Cheltenham Festival and others that have sent shockwaves throughout the entire racing fraternity.
