- Monday, 20 January 2014 16:48
- Written by David Pipe
As I pen this week’s blog, I cannot believe there are now only 50 days until the Cheltenham Festival and the early closing entries have already started. Tomorrow (Tuesday) sees the deadline for the Arkle Chase, NH Amateur Chase, RSA Chase and the Jewson Novices’ Chase so I am sure we will be making a few entries in some of those - I look forward to bringing you full details in next week’s column.
It was another good week for the stable with a steady flow of winners starting with Knight Of Noir at Exeter on Tuesday. Partnered by champion jockey A P McCoy, our five year old gelding won the second division of the NH novices’ hurdle in cosy style. He had taken a nasty tumble on his previous start at Wincanton but showed no ill effects from that to get the better of Cool George under more patient tactics this time. A former winning point-to-pointer, he has only had three starts to date and will improve with experience and win plenty more races over timber, although chasing will eventually be his game. Meanwhile, Prideofthecastle performed with credit under a penalty, just in behind in third place.
- Tuesday, 14 January 2014 08:51
- Written by David Pipe
Last week was certainly one of up’s and downs for the stable. On the upside, we enjoyed three nice winners from three very exciting prospects for the future, while on the flip side of the coin we had the poor performance of star novice The Liquidator in the rescheduled Tolworth Hurdle at Kempton.
- Monday, 06 January 2014 15:40
- Written by David Pipe
We signed off 2013 with a handful of runners at Taunton on Monday and Uttoxeter on Tuesday, but it has been a quiet start to 2014, due in most part to the recent downpours playing havoc with the racing calendar. Last Friday we seemed to have the full house; rain, thunder, lightning, hailstorms and then believe it or not, sunshine – all we were missing was a bit of snow! Indeed, the last dry day we had at Pond House was on December 12th…I don’t mind a bit of cut in the ground but it seems that several of the tracks up and down the country are under several feet of water.
- Monday, 30 December 2013 18:38
- Written by David Pipe
Well, Christmas is over and done with for another year – I have overindulged on turkey and chocolates but the kids were spoiled rotten and had a nice time, so that is the main thing. We had a quiet Christmas before heading off to Kempton for the King George meeting on Boxing Day where we had high hopes for our dashing grey Dynaste. Sadly Santa didn’t deliver the big race winner that we had craved.
- Monday, 23 December 2013 15:44
- Written by David Pipe
As Christmas fast approaches I was delighted to record our 50th winner of the current campaign with Seven Nation Army’s success at Ascot on Friday. Last year we reached the milestone on Boxing Day so to get it out of the way before Santa comes is a welcome early present! Although there is no racing taking place on these shores between now and Boxing Day, there is still plenty to be done around the yard and little time to rest on our laurels. The staff Christmas party takes place tonight so I am sure there will be a few sore heads in the morning – if I hear of any gossip I will make sure to let you know next week!
- Monday, 16 December 2013 16:58
- Written by David Pipe
Red Sherlock
Relief, delight and huge excitement are just a few of the emotions I have experienced over the weekend! Although I did not have quite as many runners numerically as in recent weekends, two of my best young horses ran and maintained their winning records. Kings Palace put together a very taking performance to win a competitive novice hurdle at Cheltenham on Saturday. I have always thought a lot of our five year old and having won at Fontwell and then nicely at Cheltenham in October, with the form of both races being boosted there was pressure for him to enhance his reputation, and boy did he deliver! Under a great ride from Tom Scu his jumping was exemplary and he galloped on relentlessly to score in style. His odds have now shortened for the Albert Bartlett novice hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and this will indeed be his target come March although he will have an entry in Neptune as well. He seems to have come out of the race fine and he may have one more run before Cheltenham although I would not be afraid if he did not run again before then either.
- Monday, 09 December 2013 17:00
- Written by David Pipe
It was a quiet start to the week with the first runners from the stable coming on Thursday at Wincanton, although come the weekend it was all hands on deck with eleven runners at Sandown and Aintree. The stable enjoyed a nice winner at Exeter on Friday courtesy of Prideofthecastle and I thought there were a number of other praiseworthy performances as well, not least from Red Seventy, Home Run and Swing Bill.
- Monday, 02 December 2013 16:54
- Written by David Pipe
It has certainly been a hectic week both on and off the racecourse. There were a number of notable performances from the likes of Weather Babe and Shotavodka as well as the success of Heath Hunter, an exciting sales purchase and not to mention the small matter of a Sir Peter O’Sullevan lifetime achievement award for my father.
- Monday, 25 November 2013 16:51
- Written by David Pipe
Well, as weekends go I have to admit that we have had worse! Gevrey Chambertin (pictured above) secured our third success in four years in the valuable Fixed Brush handicap hurdle at Haydock, while Dynaste posted a personal best with his cracking run in the Betfair Chase. Doctor Harper and Sir Frank recorded a double for the yard at Exeter on Sunday ensuring that the good form of the stable continued.
- Monday, 18 November 2013 16:59
- Written by David Pipe
Excuse me paraphrasing an old Dinah Washington classic song, but rarely has a truer word been spoken than ‘What a diff'rence a day made, twenty-four little hours’. Following a couple of what can only be described as disappointing days at Cheltenham’s Open Meeting, you can imagine the sense of relief when Home Run landed the first race of the final day, so to actually finish up as top trainer at the meeting with four winners almost beggars belief!
