A Memorable Weekend!

What an exciting weekend of racing from Cheltenham! Once again the stable enjoyed a great deal of success at the Paddy Power fixture with the three day meeting yielding three winners for the Pond House team. Much as I enjoy the meeting, I must confess to a small amount of relief that it is all over for another year – with the stable enjoying such a rich history of success at Cheltenham’s November meeting down the years, there is inevitably a greater degree of expectation and therefore pressure that goes along with it.

It looked for a moment as though it was going to be echoes of twelve months ago as we drew a blank on day one (you might remember that last year we didn’t hit the mark until Sunday when we enjoyed a fantastic four-timer). On the opening day of the meeting on Friday all four of our runners performed with credit to reach the frame although none of them quite managed to reach the top spot of the podium.

Broadway Buffalo jumped much better in the amateur riders’ handicap chase and looked to hold every chance of victory under Jamie Codd before weakening into third up the punishing Cheltenham hill. It was a similar story for Monetaire who was all but down at the first in the two mile handicap chase – he did wonders to stand up, nevermind get back into the race with a real shout at the last before he too finished third.

Knight Of Noir came agonisingly close to giving Tom Scudamore a fairytale success in his grandfather’s memorial race aboard Knight Of Noir. He ran a mighty race but could not quite muster the pace of the winner after the last. He is a lovely stamp of a horse who will make a smashing chaser one day, but in the meantime stable sponsors Wayne and Sarah Clifford have an exciting horse to go racing with.

Meanwhile over at Newcastle on Friday Conor O’Farrell made sure that we did not go home completely empty handed by driving our filly Molo to success on her hurdling debut. A winner of her only start in a bumper last term, she jumped well on this first start over timber and saw her race out very well considering the very heavy ground prevailing. She looks sure to progress further with experience and is a lovely mare to have in the stable.

Saturday truly was a day to remember for the stable with Kings Palace putting up a most taking performance in the Cheltenham Club novices’ chase on his first start over the larger obstacles. There is always a concern that these quality hurdlers will not translate that ability to fences, but in his case there appears nothing to worry about. Putting in an assured and often spectacular round of jumping under Tom Scudamore, he looked as though he had been chasing for years. The obvious long term target is the RSA Chase at the Cheltenham Festival although he could have another two or three runs before then to gain further experience.

His success bought up our 50th winner of the current campaign and there really couldn’t have been a better way to do it. It was also our fastest 50 to boot, coming 11 days ahead of our previous best in the 2009/10 campaign.

Katkeau quickly brought up winner number 51 with a battling success in the staying handicap hurdle. He has had a well-publicised catalogue of problems to contend with and to defy an absence of 630 days from a recent Cesarewitch winner is a very satisfying achievement. He will be left in the Fixed Brush hurdle at next week’s Haydock fixture at this stage; a five pounds penalty meaning that he creeps in at the bottom of the weights. We will see how he is over the coming days before making a decision on his participation

We were lucky enough to score our third victory of the meeting with the success of Unique de Cotte in the boys’ race that we had won twelve months ago with Home Run. Kieron Edgar was also following-up aboard the JP McManus owned six year old who was also defying an absence in excess of 600 days. He too is in the Fixed Brush hurdle and much like Katkeau, we will see how he has come out of his race in the next few days. This was a landmark first success for the stable with a McManus owned horse and I would like to thank him for his patience with the horse and entrusting me with his care.  The race win was especially poignant as it was run in the memory of the late and very much missed Brian Kilpatrick who passed away in May.  Brian had many wonderful horses with us down the years and was an unswerving supporter of the stable.  I am sure that he was giving us a little extra assistance from above!

With other notable performances from Great Choice, Baraka de Thaix and Street Entertainer all reaching the frame, it was a memorable meeting for the stable – a comment I am sure that also applies to Philip Hobbs…congratulations to him on a momentous weekend.

Earlier in the week we were also on the mark with extremely promising juvenile Stars Over The Sea who posted a facile success at Ludlow under his winners’ penalty. His hurdling was more polished than on his debut and he will continue to learn as he gains experience – he should remain difficult to beat in this division. We completed a double on the day with a rare all-weather success at Kempton with Dalgig and Mikey Ennis.

There will be no runners from the stable tomorrow, although we have plenty of entries for later in the week with the highlight being the Betfair Chase meeting at Haydock on Saturday. We have left Dynaste in at the confirmation stage of the big race and he is very much on course to try to go one better than when runner-up to Cue Card in the most recent renewal. Meanwhile, at the latest stage we have left Heath Hunter, Katkeau, Vieux Lion Rouge and Unique de Cotte in the Fixed Brush hurdle. It is a race that we have won three times in the past four years and I would dearly love to add to that tally.  As usual for all the latest news on the stable runners, do keep up to date with Chester’s Daily Chat or follow us on Twitter @DavidPipeRacing.