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Two Out Of Three
Winning Text Tips Tuesday! As the countdown to Cheltenham continues, we will be interviewing a number of racing personalities for their views on the forthcoming Festival. From Tuesday next week we will asking for three selections from some of the shrewdest judges in the industry. The Update Line 0906 400 901
You can hear of all of the latest information in the lead-up to Cheltenham on our Update Line from 10am daily. Be sure not to miss out on this exclusive information, call 09060 400 901 from 10am (calls charged at £1.50 per min, Helpline 01884 840715). No Salut At
Sandown! Salut Flo, the ante-post second favourite for this weekend's Imperial Cup handicap hurdle at Sandown will miss the race in favour of a crack at one of Cheltenham's handicap chases next week. This afternoon David confirmed that the ex-French recruit, an impressive winner over fences at Doncaster last week, will instead be left in the Jewson Novices' Handicap Chase on the Thursday and the Grand Annual Handicap Chase on the Friday. Salut Flo will compete with just a 5lbs penalty for his impressive success. 10th Mar '10 6 Days To Go! Just think, if you are going to buy a horse and you have Cheltenham Festival aspirations, don't buy a horse that has a preference for good or fast ground! With the watering system they employ at Cheltenham it is never going to be that sort of ground again. Why do courses feel the need to put so much water on? Of course, you do not want to jar the horses up, but is there really any need to change the ground completely? Noel Meade is one trainer who is concerned over the ground for his ante-post Champion Hurdle favourite Go Native, while Alan Fleming also has concerns over Starluck's chance. If you are watering the ground, I believe that they should be aiming for good ground, not good/soft. If there is any appreciable rain between now and the beginning of the Festival on Tuesday, the ground could come up horrible and tacky. Come on Cheltenham - don't overwater! ***** The Festival handicaps are so competitive, there are bound to be a number of disappointed owners and trainers. Philip Hobbs says that to get a run in the Martin Pipe race (a 0-140 handicap), you will need to be rated around 135. He has nine horses entered, but none of them are likely to get in! Sir Clement Freud once said "being a racehorse owner is the most expensive way of getting in free at the races". If you have an entry in the Festival handicaps, you may struggle to get in at all! ***** We have Tom Malone on the Update Line this morning from 10am giving his views on the Cheltenham Festival, while tomorrow I will be talking to stable jockey Tom Scudamore. Call 09060 400 901 for the latest information (calls charged at £1.50 per min at all times, helpline 01884 840715). 10th Mar '10 Ben's Bins! Racing Post assistant editor Ben Newton has been down to the yard to talk to David prior to the Cheltenham Festival, and he joined us on the gallops this morning. We had to stand a little further back than usual to watch the horses on the gallops - as you can see from the photograph below, if we had stood in our normal place, Ben would have knocked the jockeys off with his binoculars!
Chapman To Miss
Cheltenham! There is an interesting article in the Racing Post today called "My Festival" about Matt "Satsuma" Chapman. Tragically, he tells us that he will be watching the entire Cheltenham meeting from the confines of his booth at Attheraces headquarters. I cannot believe that he will not be joining us in our marquee this year to give us his opinions and advice, and to have a go at anybody (and I do mean anybody!) that disagrees with him. We normally only have one microphone on the go, so it can be very difficult to prize it out of Matt's (orange) little fingers. The silly thing is that he probably doesn't need a microphone anyway - even the marquee next door can hear Matt's tips! One thing I will say about Matt though, is that he never sits on the fence...unlike a few of his selections! ***** It was good to see Tanto Faz score in good style at Stratford yesterday. His win has given a significant boost to the form of Dan Breen, who beat him by eight lengths at Doncaster on his hurdling debut. I think it could have been a bit more, so he is one to look forward to at Cheltenham next week. ***** Luke Harvey is on the Pipeline Update Line this morning from 10am giving us his best bets for Cheltenham. Tomorrow we will be talking to former jockey turned bloodstock agent, Tom Malone about his Festival Fancies - Tom is never usually short of something to say! To listen in, call 09060 400 901 (calls charged at £1.50 per min at all times). 9th Mar '10 Cheltenham
Festival Latest... David announced this morning that Madison du Berlais will by-pass his engagements at the Cheltenham Festival and instead go straight to Aintree. Madison, who won last year's Betfair Bowl at the Grand National meeting has finished in the frame on his four starts (including when runner-up in the King George Chase at Kempton on Boxing Day), but has yet to get his head in front this term. He is absolutely fine, but rather than head to Cheltenham he will instead be kept for Aintree where he could aim to defend his title in the Betfair Bowl, or run in the Grand National itself. 8th Mar '10 8 Days To Go! I see that Mick Easterby is fuming about a £140 fine incurred when Nacho Libre went to the start wearing a set of visors instead of blinkers. While it should never have happened, surely the clerk of the scales is also partly responsible? When a rider goes to weight-out, the clerk checks the weight is correct and also the colours and tack, so why isn't the clerk of the scales also fined? With the owner refusing to pay transport costs to the races, Mick finds himself £640 out of pocket, and he won't like that one little bit...I am told that he still has the first fiver that he ever earned! ***** I see that Denman is a drifter in the Gold Cup betting, with a number of firms unable to give away the 2008 winner. If you are looking to have a bet on him, I would suggest leaving it for a little while; not only could the odds get bigger still, there is normally a reason for these drifts. Connections say that it is because of the ground, you will just have to make up your own mind. Talking of ground, I notice that Cheltenham are to start watering their ground today. While Simon Claisse and his team do an undeniably great job of keeping the Prestbury course in wonderful order, I have to ask the question - What is wrong with good/firm ground? There are a number of horses that will be going to Cheltenham that handle the faster ground well, but their chances will be all but scuppered by the additional water. How is that fair? So long as the going is not dangerously fast, the winners should be those horses that act best under the conditions on the day. Bookmakers have already chalked up the ground on the opening day being good/soft as a 1/7 chance. Maybe the fast ground horses should just stay at home?! ***** Don't forget that from tomorrow, we start our build-up to the Cheltenham Festival with former jockey and Attheraces pundit Luke Harvey appearing on the Pipeline. He will be giving us his Festival fancies from 10am on 09060 400 901 (Calls charged at £1.50 per min at all times, Helpline 01884 80715). 8th Mar '10 Imperial Cup
Questions! I see that the Racing Post have started to speculate about what David will be running in the Imperial Cup on Saturday. If you win the big handicap hurdle at Sandown, and then follow-up in any race at the Cheltenham Festival, the sponsors pay out a big bonus. It is something that Martin managed to do with Olympian and Blowing Wind in the past, and David also successfully completed the double with his dad's horse Gaspara in 2007. I was up in the snooker room at Pond House earlier in the week, and I noticed the cheques that are presented to winning connections - they are about 5 feet long and fairly heavy - if you dropped one of those, it certainly wouldn't bounce! David went to Ireland on Thursday to attend a Cheltenham Preview Evening at Waterford. The MC said that David held the microphone a bit like Alvin Stardust (a 70's/80's pop singer for you young 'uns)! Anyway, they were also probing whether Notus de la Tour will be the one to attempt the double - David wasn't giving anything away, but Channel 4 pundit and former champion jockey John Francome wouldn't have any of it; "he's his father's son, he knows what the plot is!" I guess time will tell...only nine days left to the start of the 2010 Cheltenham Festival - I can't wait! 7th Mar '10 Go With The Flo! There was a very nice performance from a Pond House debutant at Doncaster yesterday afternoon. Ex-French recruit Salut Flo turned the 2m3f handicap chase into a procession under Hadden Frost and looks certain to go on to better things. Ironically, he probably won by too far and I don't think the handicapper will be too pleased to have seen him score by 12 lengths from a mark of 118. I would imagine he will be taking a fair hike up the weights after this. It was a first winner in our new horsebox, so at least that has now been christened (with a winner anyway)! Sadly, The Sliotar has been ruled out of action for the remainder of the season. He held a few entries at the Cheltenham Festival, and I thought that he would have had a chance in the four mile National Hunt Chase. It's a tough old game for owner and trainer, and illustrates the highs and lows of our great sport.
***** I would imagine that Nicky Henderson will be facing an anxious wait following news that Punchestowns was found to be lame yesterday. His participation at this year's Festival is now in some doubt, although he has a decent replacement in the RSA Chase in the shape of new favourite, Long Run. ***** We enjoyed a good day on the Pipeline yesterday with four nice winners at prices of 11/2, 4/1, 6/4 and 8/11. To benefit from this top-class information, simply call 0900 3900 900 from 8am (calls charged at 60p per min at all times, Helpline 01884 840715). As if that wasn't enough, subscribers to our text tipping service were pointed in the direction of 3 winners from 4 selections. To subscribe to our text tipping service, simply text PIPE to 84010 (texts cost £1.50 per message, to unsubscribe at any time text PIPE STOP to 84010). 6th Mar '10 Another Case For Inspector Lynley! I see that Enda Bolger is intending to run all five of his entries in the Cross Country race at the Cheltenham Festival. That is bad news for the rest of the trainers as Enda has farmed this race down the years, first with Spot Thedifference and more recently with Garde Champetre. I don't know why they don't just cancel the event and give Enda the trophy! With only eleven days left to the start of the Cheltenham Festival, I am sure that there are many trainers that are at their wits end trying to get their string to Prestbury Park in one piece. After the Festval is done and dusted, it is then more or less straight on to the Grand National meeting at Aintree. It seems that the entire jumping season is geared up to one month of the year. ***** Talking of Cheltenham, I see that Nathaniel Parker has been interviewed for today's Racing Post. He says that he will be coming to the Festival with us and I am sure that I will be seeing him in the marquee. You would think that being Inspector Lynley, he would be able to solve all of the mysteries that the Festival is bound to offer! I am sure he will give me some stick when I am on the microphone in the marquee - he did last year! ***** While I was on the gallops yesterday morning, Notus de la Tour passed me under Johnny Farrelly going nicely. A winner at Plumpton (when partnered by Johnny) on his only start for us, he holds a number of engagements at the Cheltenham Festival, but has been installed by bookmakers as the favourite for the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices' Hurdle. 5th Mar '10
12 Days To Go! We had a couple of runners at Folkestone yesterday and they both performed creditably to reach the frame. Aboukir Bay finished third, beaten only four lengths despite the burden of 11-12 on very soft ground and he looks capable of winning a similar sort of contest. Painter Man was only narrowly beaten by Canni Thinkaar despite the concession of 12lbs to the winner. Unfortunately Painter Man didn't get a great jump at the last and it may just have made the difference as he was closing again all the way to the line. The pair were 13 lengths clear of the third, and Painter Man certainly looks up to winning again. ***** I was interested to read an article by David Ashforth about Jonjo O'Neill. He says that his principal patron J P McManus never asks him for any tips, but simply asks if the trainer is happy with his horses. JP then makes his own mind up. Jonjo rates his best Festival chance as Totesport Trophy Hurdle winner Get Me Out Of Here in the opening Supreme Novices' Hurdle. I wonder if he will tell JP that he is happy with him? While he was impressive at Newbury, Get Me Out Of Here will come up against last year's Champion Bumper winner Dunguib, who for many is the banker of the entire meeting. With less than two weeks to go until the start of the Festival, you can feel the anticipation starting to build...it should be another wonderful meeting! 4th Mar '10 Carvill's Recalled! There is an interesting article in today's Racing Post about Carvill's Hill. He was a real giant of a horse, and he had long been touted as the next Arkle when trained in Ireland through the early part of his career. When he was sent to Martin, there was huge interest in the horse, and his fans turned out in force when we sent him back to Ireland to run in the Irish Hennessy Gold Cup. Our gelding flew from Bristol, and Carvill's Hill was so big that his head touched the roof of the plane and he could not turn around in the aircraft. Indeed, when he touched down in Ireland, he had to be backed down the ramp. As I am sure many of you will recall, he bolted up in the race and the Irish descended upon the winners' enclosure. He was one of those horses that seemed to be public property - the Irish thought he was a real superstar, and every one of them felt like they owned him. Eddie Buckley, our head lad used to ride him at home. He was a real handful (that's Carvill's, not Eddie!) and once he would get to the top of the gallops, he would turn around and take off! You just had to give him his head and let him get on with it. He was a horse of outstanding ability, and I still remember vividly the demolition job he did on his rivals in the Welsh National at Chepstow under top weight. ***** I see that former snooker player John Virgo is 64 today. I used to tour around all of the holiday camps with JV, and I remember getting locked in a bar with him at Warners Holiday Camp on the Isle Of Wight - still, I guess there are worse places you could get locked in. John used to own decent sprinter, Jokist, and he used to like the odd flutter. Many happy returns of the day John! 3rd Mar '10 Latest News From The Gallops! It's been a lovely bright morning on the gallops. It was frosty first thing so the ground was still a little white, but with the excellent light, it makes for great pictures (even if I do say so myself!). The first one past me was Leo's Lucky Star who was partnered by Johnny Farrelly, shortly followed by the unbeaten Chartreux, who was working alongside recent recruit Ortolan. I also managed to get a nice shot of Grand National hero Comply Or Die and I thought that he looked really well as he continued his build-up to Aintree's centrepiece.
Yesterday, it was Amy Coles' 19th
birthday. Amy has been with us for a couple of years now and looks
after Madison du Berlais among others. You can see her below
riding Painter Man with a special rug that MCP had made up for the
birthday people. The rug has embossed on it, "It's My Birthday" in
gold letters, alongside a bottle of champagne.
Many Happy Returns! There are some famous people born on 2nd March. First of all, there is Gordon Elliott who seems to spend more time in England with his horses than he does back home in Ireland! I think he has his own room at David's house, although maybe not now that Jack Pipe is in residence - Gordon always did like his sleep! A name from the past, Lorna Vincent is 51 today. Lorna was one of the first lady jockeys - she rode for Les Kennard before becoming assistant to Mick Channon. Below you will see a picture of Lorna winning aboard one of Martin's horses, Le Dauphin at Newton Abbot in 1978. Le Dauphin was owned by a great old friend of the yard, Malcolm Zadel who has now sadly passed away.
I notice that it is also Harry Redknapp's birthday today. Harry, who is 63 today was one of my football heroes back when he played for West Ham United - I would never miss a Hammers match in those days. I also played in Harry's golf team on the Isle Of Purbeck with Bill Longmuire. Any golfing enthusiasts will know who Bill was, he led The Open a couple of times. ***** I see that a few of the Racing Post pundits are looking through the Supreme Novices' Hurdle for a bit of value against Dunguib on the back of Paddy Power offering to refund all losing bets should the favourite win. One of them goes for David's impressive Doncaster winner, Dan Breen. If you can't get on with Power, at least find a bookie like Bet365 who are offering non runner, no bet and best odds guaranteed. Interestingly, David Johnson nominates The Package in the William Hill Handicap Chase as his best chance of a winner at the Festival. 2nd Mar '10 Looking Back! Looking back at the weekend action, I thought that Madison du Berlais ran creditably enough in the Racing Post Chase on Saturday under the circumstances. The blinkers certainly seemed to light our nine year old up, and he always seemed to be doing a little too much too soon. It is also worth remembering that he was giving weight away to the three in front of him (including 21lbs to the winner) on soft ground. The extra Champion Hurdle trial that was put on in place of the Kingwell Hurdle really did not tell us anything. Second favourite, Treaty Flyer (a 9/1 chance) fell at the fourth hurdle leaving reigning Champion hurdler Punjabi to saunter home by twelve lengths. He probably does more work at home! Having said that, the owners picked up £8,170 for what was effectively a public exercise gallop. ***** If you like a flutter on the ante-post markets, it is worth bearing in mind that Bet365 are offering some great concessions to punters. They have just started betting non-runner, no bet, which means you will get your money back if your selection does not run, and they are also best odds guaranteed, so if you take the price now, the firm will give you the SP if it is bigger. It's good to see them trying to drum up a bit of interest early with these decent offers, let's just hope that some more of the firms follow suit. ***** I notice that it is Roger Daltrey's 65th birthday today. The Who front man shows little sign of slowing down in his old age, and he recently performed what has to be one of the biggest gigs of his entire career, when his band played the half-time show at the Superbowl. It takes me back to the days when I used to get on board my old Vespa GS and go for a ride down to Brighton with all the Mods...there were no crash helmets in those days, we all just cut a dash in our berets! My scooter had more mirrors on it than a newspaper stand! 1st Mar '10 Weekend Jottings! It is that time of the year when all of the Cheltenham Festival preview evenings take place. David was on the panel at Exeter racecourse on Thursday evening along with Paul Nicholls and Harry Findlay. I understand that Harry was his usual reserved self! The really posh night takes part at the Mayfair Hotel, Picadilly - that is a black-tie affair. I don't think that Thursday's bash required a dickie-bow! ***** You may remember the two jockey's that were literally fighting out the finish at Philadelphia a few months ago! The pair were punching and whipping each other near the finishing line. Well, it was the disciplinary hearing yesterday and the pair were handed lengthy suspensions. The jockey who landed the first blow received the harshest penalty - a 200 day ban, while the other received 70 days. They will both have plenty of time to spend at the gym working out - although they will probably be in different gyms! ***** I am pleased to see that one of the local track's (Exeter) has embraced the idea of trying to attract a larger audience by making the experience better value for many. You can attend all three of their meetings during March for only £25 - that is just over £8 per meeting. Tickets are only available by advance booking on: 0844 579 3005. I hope that the meetings are well supported - good luck Exeter, you deserve a good turnout for your initiative! 28th Feb '10 Plastic Fantastic! I was watching the racing at Ludlow earlier in the week when two of the runners in the chase fell independently of each other at the second fence. They then proceeded to run through the wings of the next fence and gallop all the way around the track demolishing the plastic railings and making a complete mess of the course as they went. The horses were okay however, so the safety measures employed are clearly working, and it occurred to me that back when MCP was riding, the railings were all made of wood. You can imagine the carnage that would have happened back then, having said that...there was usually carnage when Martin was in the saddle! ***** I see that David's young son is to be called Jack Thomas Pipe. I wonder if he will follow in the family footsteps and enjoy a career in racing? He has a mountain to climb if he is to emulate his father and grandfather as trainers, while he will surely surpass their achievements if he decides to become a jockey instead! 27th Feb '10 Prize Money Controversy I notice in today's paper that A P McCoy has hit out at prize money levels in this country, and the point is perfectly illustrated by a race at Wolverhampton this evening that is worth only £1364.80 to the winner. Personally, I am of the opinion that if you win a couple of races, it should cover the owners training fees. The problem is that if people carry on running for this sort of prize money then the status quo will remain. Someone must be making money out of horse racing and it is certainly not the owners - although most do not own horses for fiscal reward, it would be nice if they did have a decent return on their investment. In France the prize money is much better (even in the provinces). Take a look at today's meeting at Warwick - the prize money for their seven race meeting totals £25,003, while just across the Irish Sea, the card at Thurles is worth €71,295. I wonder what would happen if the owners refused to run their horses? Who would suffer the greatest dent in their income? I am in total agreement with A P - he doesn't need the money, he does quite adequately thank you! However, he is passionate about this sport and his comments come out of concern for it, rather than any greedy motives. I think that when the champ speaks out like this, people should sit up and take notice. At a time when the Racing For Change project is aiming to bring new audiences to the sport, who is looking to encourage new owners - if they leave, there will be nothing for this new audience to watch! 26th Feb '10 Another Addition
To The Pipe Line! Congratulations to David and Leanne on the birth of their baby son, Jack Thomas Pipe last night at Musgrove Park Hospital, Taunton at 10.48pm. Both baby and father are doing well...or should that be mother? They tell me that Jack already has more hair than David, mind you Yul Brynner would give David a run for his money! Leanne and baby are due out today - he weighed in at 7lbs12oz. Well done to you both! ***** On the racing front, Tamarinbleu ran a cracker at Doncaster yesterday afternoon in one of those veteran's chases. He was narrowly beaten by Chief Dan George, the pair well clear of the remainder. The winner came across our ten year old, but despite a steward's enquiry the result stood. Winning jockey Paddy Aspell was handed a three day ban for his ride - it seems strange that the jockey should get a ban, but the horse still keeps the race! I am not saying that the best horse did not win, but when a friend of mine asked me to explain who the stewards' arrived at that decision, I couldn't really give him a sensible answer. To him it is black and white, if you are guilty, you should be disqualified. Ardkilly Rebel also ran a cracker on his debut for the yard when runner-up in the 3m maiden hurdle. The winner was Cannington Brook, who had some decent form with Watamu Bay. Ardkilly Rebel should have little trouble picking up races on this display, while the stable's other runner Ortolan also put in a promising first run for the Pond House team by staying on for third. 25th Feb '10 Busy, Busy, Busy! What a hectic morning it was yesterday! We were joined early doors by Daily Mirror race-writer Dave Mitchell and photographer Harry as they were preparing for their Cheltenham Festival pull-out...I say early doors, they were supposed to be here at 6.00am but Dave clearly needed his beauty sleep. It wasn't so long ago that Mr Mitchell implied that I was 74 years of age, so now it is time for a little pay-back. I have a lovely picture of the two David's on the gallops yesterday morning - as you can see, the pint-sized scribe won't exactly win any beauty competitions!
Shortly afterwards we were joined by members of the Racegoers Club Owners Group who were here to see their mare Floraline. 45 members of the syndicate braved the elements to see their five year old on the gallops and have a look around the remainder of the facilities here at Pond House.
***** I managed to get a couple of nice pictures from the gallops yesterday including one of Shali San schooling over fences under Hadden Frost. The pair of them are reacquainted this afternoon as they compete in the conditional jockeys' handicap chase at Ludlow - I hope she jumps as well as she did yesterday. I also managed to get a shot of new ex-French recruit Salut Flo in action with Quinte du Chatelet (a three time winner this season) - they were partnered by Danny Cook and Jonothan Lower respectively. 24th Feb
More Snow! Looking at the pictures of Alan King's yard at Barbury Castle, I think it is safe to say that we have been relatively lucky with the weather. Although we have had a fair bit of snow down here over the course of the last week (and it is trying to snow again now!), it would be nothing compared to the conditions Alan has had to endure. It makes you wonder what trainers today would do without their all-weather gallops. Years ago Mr Pipe Snr bought a snow blower, which as the name would suggest, blows the snow away from the gallops! It seems that the problem with most of the gallops is that they freeze. When the temperatures really dip, you will often see the tractor drivers going up and down all night working the gallops to stop them from freezing. ***** It's a busy day today with early closing entries for the Cheltenham handicaps, as well as a visit from a syndicate of owners and our tame pressman Dave Mitchell (who collaborates on David's column in the Mirror on Saturday's) and his photographer. 23rd Feb '10 A Look Back At
The Weekend! As I am sure you are aware, it was a blank day for racing in England and Ireland yesterday, but the there were several praiseworthy efforts on Saturday. I thought that Our Vic ran another cracker in the Blue Square Gold Cup Handicap Chase at Haydock. I know that he was eventually beaten 15 lengths by the winner Silver By Nature, but he was giving the winner 12lbs and the 3m4f trip may have just stretched his stamina a bit too far. Having said that, you couldn't categorically say that he didn't stay- he was giving 10lbs and a 5 length beating to Le Beau Bai in third, and 2lbs and a near 20 length beating to Grand National winner Mon Mome (who finished 6th). It was clearly a very smart performance from Our Vic and he picked up over £21,000 for second - Danny Cook gave him another great ride and he really gets a tune out of our grand veteran. Multiple winning chaser Consigliere ran a big race in the valuable handicap hurdle at Ascot under Johnny Farrelly to finish third. He wasn't beaten at all far and looks to have a nice hurdle race in him, as he had some decent horses behind him. Johnny seems to go from strength to strength in the saddle and I am sure that his services will continue to be in demand now that he has ridden out his claim. ***** I enjoyed watching young Hadden Frost on The Morning Line on Saturday. They must have shown him taking a fall and getting a good kicking at least three times, poor chap! His two front teeth came out in his gum shield, and he reminded me very much of his Grand National winning father Jimmy, who was also missing two front teeth. 22nd Feb '10 Tiger Talk! As I am sure you are all aware by now, I am a golfing fanatic, so I was very interested to watch the Tiger Woods show on Friday. It looked like another American soap opera - it was so stage managed! After Tiger had finished talking, he then went up to all the people in the front row and started cuddling them. I would have thought it would have been better if they had let some of the assembled press ask him some questions. Afterall, we still don't know when he is coming back to play golf. I would also have been interested to know where his wife, Erin was during this press conference - it was hardly a public display of solidarity. I found the whole episode quite peculiar, maybe Tiger was just apologising to his sponsors! Just a thought, but I guess he is lucky that he never had Nick Faldo's caddy, Fanny!!! ***** The countdown to the Cheltenham Festival continues and there are only 23 days to the start of National Hunt Racing's centrepiece. We are in for a busy time of it on Tuesday with several of the handicaps for the Festival closing - I am sure that there will be quite a few from Pond House. 21st Feb '10 Ascot On As
Wincanton Abandon! There are four scheduled jumps meetings this afternoon and they are all inspecting. Sadly Wincanton have already abandoned their meeting, but it is more positive news at Ascot where they have declared that they are fit to race. It makes matters quite difficult as a number of the horses hold more than one engagement and final jockey bookings are still up in the air. Tom Scu is jocked up on Lough Derg at Haydock and Ascot, so he is still waiting to hear what the clerk of the course does at Haydock. Of course, the horses have to be at the tracks in plenty of time too. Some of the lorry's have to leave and wait on the motorway until they know which meetings go ahead, the problems are multiplied when the clerks of the courses keep putting the inspections back. ***** I couldn't be more full of admiration for Lieutenant Guy Disney. Guy shrugged off the loss of half his leg in the war in Afghanistan to compete in a charity race at Fakenham yesterday afternoon. Anyone that has sat on a horse will know how tricky it is to ride, so to compete in a race like Guy did was a quite unbelievable achievement. What's more, he looked really stylish as he finished second. Guy, I take my hat off to you, you are an inspiration to us all. ***** I was looking through MCP's Dorothy Paget collection with him the other day when he showed me an old 78 record. It had a recording of the commentary of Golden Miller winning the Grand National. It was very interesting - a bit crackly, but probably worth a few quid pop pickers! 20th Feb '10 Zaynar Sunk By
Quwetwo! Following the news the day before that Binocular is on the sidelines for the remainder of the season, it was quite a shock to see Nicky Henderson's Champion Hurdle aspirations take another beating when Zaynar was turned over at odds of 1/14 yesterday afternoon at Kelso. His defeat is the shortest priced loser since Suluk was beaten at Southwell in 1988 at the same price. I see that someone wagered £1,200 to win £100 on Zaynar. A bookie I knew a long time ago would have said, "If you have £1,200, what do you want another £100 for?" - I bet the punter is asking himself that same question now! Even allowing for the small field and the fact that Zaynar was well-in on official figures, it didn't look like the ideal Cheltenham prep-run to me - a slog through what resembled a ploughed field. For those Zaynar supporters, you will be hoping that he needed the run very badly and the re-application of cheekpieces will do the trick at the Festival. ***** There's a great picture of Tom Taafe with former Gold Cup and King George winner, Kicking King in today's Racing Post. It looks like Kicking King is trying to read the paper over Tom's shoulder...he must have been an intelligent horse! 19th Feb '10 Good Godfrey! What about Godfrey Maundrell winning the Hunter Chase at Leicester yesterday? What's good about it you might ask? Well, Godfrey is 61 years old...the sprightly pilot is not the oldest jockey to win a race, but it is a great achievement nonetheless. Harry Beasley was 71 when he won a chase at Punchestown in 1923, and he bettered that by winning a flat race at Ballydoyle in 1935 at the tender age of 83! I hope MCP is not reading this, as it might inspire him to make a comeback to the saddle. Come to think of it, he did work one up the gallops the other morning!... ***** If you are a fan of music, then make sure you do not tune in to Sarah Kennedy's show on Radio 2 tomorrow morning! That is when the official Cheltenham Festival song gets it's first airing - it's the one that David went up to London to help record in aid of charity with a host of other trainers and jockeys. Ear muffs are needed I am told - afterall, I have heard David sing! Of course, I am only joking and proceeds from the single will benefit a number of worthy causes. ***** I hope that you phoned the Pipeline yesterday as we had another good day with a 15/8 winner and an 8/1 winner. Today Tom Scudamore has a good book of rides at Ffos Las and I will be speaking with him about his chances on the Update Line from 10am. To hear what he has to say, simply call 09060 400 901 (Calls charged at £1.50 per minute at all times, helpline 01884 840715). 18th Feb '10 On The Wrong
Track (Again)! Another day, another farce...this time at Newcastle as five jockeys took the wrong course in the maiden hurdle. It would seem that the bans that are being handed out are not doing their job. Personally, I would have to ask the jockeys: 1) Can you read? 2) Can you tell your left from your right? 3) Did you walk the course? How can they get things so wrong? There was a massive great "H" on top of a big dole which the jockeys are meant to go the right side of - it all seems so simple! I would imagine that the five jockeys that went the wrong way have ridden around Newcastle before, so maybe there should be a question 4) Do you suffer from amnesia?...I forgot that question! Perhaps the courses should be railed all of the way around? That way at least the jockeys would not have to think or make a decision on their own! A twelve day ban is not long enough, and you certainly wouldn't want to be backing any of those jockey's in the cross country race at next month's Festival! Maybe the jockeys should be made to pay a week's training fees and transportation charges for getting their mounts to the races? Once again, it is the poor old owner that has to foot the bill, and they don't even get a run for their money. Something needs to be done as this situation is turning into an all too regular and embarrassing occurrence. 17th Feb '10 David's Reaction to the National Weights You can now listen to David's reaction to the Grand National weights and his thoughts on the Pond House entries by clicking on the link on the home page. The interview was conducted by Mike Vince at the London Grand National Weights Luncheon on Tuesday and is reproduced with his kind permission. 2010 Grand National Weights! The weights for the 2010 John Smith's Grand National have just been announced and a David Pipe trained runner shares topweight. Last year's Hennessy Gold Cup and Betfair Bowl winner Madison du Berlais is set to carry 11-10, along with Albertas Run and Notre Pere. Next in the weights are Taranis on 11-9 and then another Pipe trained entry, Our Vic on 11-8. Last year's winner Mon Mome has 11-7, just ahead of Black Apalachi, Joe Lively and Vic Venturi (11-6). David's 2008 Grand National hero Comply Or Die is set to carry 11-5, effectively 1lb lower than when runner-up last year. David's other entries are: Pablo du Charmil (11-2), Seven Is My Number (10-13), Piraya (10-7), The Package (10-7), Faasel (10-3) and Over The Creek (9-4). As usual, senior handicapper Phil Smith has exercised a degree of discretion in the marks awarded to the top-weights in order to encourage a better class of horse to run in the Aintree spectacular. Those that are officially ahead of the handicapper include: Albertas Run (5lbs well in), Madison du Berlais (4lbs), Taranis (2lbs) and Our Vic (2lbs). This discretion means that no fewer than 97 of 111 original entries are in the handicap proper and Julian Thick, managing director of Aintree commented, "It is unprecedented to have 87% of the field in the handicap for the John Smith's Grand National and it is fantastic that such a high-class field will line up on Saturday, April 10, in what will be the most valuable jump race ever run in Britain with £925,000 in prize money." The top 20 in the handicap are as follows and you can hear David's reaction to the announcement of these weights at lunchtime this afternoon in a specially recorded interview with Mike Vince from the London function.
Grand National
Weights Day! David, Martin and Carol are on their way up to London this morning for the announcement of the Grand National weights. I think that Carol might be going to Harrods...or does Mrs P have a fancy for the big one and wants to see what weight it has been allotted? My bet is on Harrods! Anyway, for the National weights and reaction to the handicap, check back here at 11am. ***** I was on the gallops during first lot this morning to watch some of the string schooling over hurdles and fences. Below you will see recent Doncaster winner and Supreme Novices' Hurdle entry Dan Breen (Johnny Farrelly) jumping upsides Irish point-to-point winner, Ardkilly Rebel (Danny Cook). Over the bigger obstacles Leo's Lucky Star was very good under Tom Scudamore.
***** There will be plenty of people watching the big match tonight as Manchester Utd take on A C Milan in the European Champions League. All of the hype is surrounding David Beckham (for a change) and the opportunity to face his old boss Sir Alex. Becks will probably start on the sub's bench, and while A C are not at their best in the league, with home field advantage the 15/8 on offer does look tempting. ***** I see there has been a colony of bats discovered in the old Palace House Stables in Newmarket. The site is due to be renovated to become the new "Home of Horseracing", but they cannot touch it until the bats have moved out. Apparently the bats sleep all winter and cannot be woken up...they sound like a few people I know! 16th Feb '10 Memories Of Dick
Francis OBE & CBE I was greatly saddened to hear of the news that Dick Francis had passed away. I have very fond memories of Dick - he was always a true gentleman, and a pleasure to talk to about the old days of racing. Dick was also a great horseman and was champion jockey in 1953/4, although, ironically his career in the saddle was defined by the bizarre incident involving Devon Loch in the 1956 Grand National. His mount, owned by the Queen Mother was well clear of his field when collapsing on the run-in, only yards from the winning line. Indeed, Dick would never better his first ride in the race, aboard Roimond, who finished second in 1949 having also been runner-up in the King George. After retiring from race riding, Dick would visit Aintree every year to watch the big race. I would often meet him up there and we would talk about old times. I specifically remember the 1997 renewal, and not just because it was the year that the course was evacuated due to a bomb scare and then run on the following Monday! Indeed, as we were evacuating the course I saw Dick sat on a bench on his own. I sat down with him and told him that we had to leave, but he was in no rush - we talked for ages! Dick would also be a regular visitor to Newton Abbot races and we would often enjoy his company in our hospitality box. Dick was a wonderful writer, who produced countless fantastic novels. He was very meticulous in his research for his books, just as he was meticulous in life. He was always immaculately presented, and was always well prepared as an author and jockey. A talent such as Dick Francis does not come along very often, and racing is much the poorer for his passing. Our thoughts and deepest sympathy are with Dick's sons Merrick and Felix at this very sad time 15th Feb '10 Farrelly Rides
Out Claim! It was another good weekend for the yard with Piraya scoring a hard fought victory under Johnny Farrelly at Warwick on Saturday. Our seven year old won by 1 1/4 lengths under a good ride from Johnny, who was riding his 75th winner (and therefore last success as a conditional jockey) and in the process, landing over £12,000 in prize money. Johnny said that when he had ridden out his claim, he was going to retire...I see he has rides at Catterick this afternoon, so I guess we are out of luck (only kidding Johnny)!
Our runners also performed well in the Totesport Trophy Hurdle at Newbury, with Ronaldo des Mottes finishing second and Mamlook fourth. Ronaldo looked all over the winner when jumping the last in front, but that man McCoy managed to get a great run from Get Me Out Of Here to head us close home. While Mamlook looked to be travelling well for most of the race, I just get the feeling that he would appreciate a little bit further again. ***** I cannot believe the rubbish that some people send into the Racing Post! One observer suggested that following Denman's run on Saturday at Newbury, that the fourteen times champion jockey presented the horse at the fence wrong, while another suggested that McCoy is a man for bad horses in bad races. Where are these people coming from? I thought that Denman was tiring and would not have won anyway...it is possible for horses to have off-days or problems, and with Niche Market (rated 34lbs inferior) so close at the time of Denman's departure, it would suggest that he was just below-par on the day. How McCoy can still have his doubters after all he has achieved is beyond me - did you see him get Kerada up to win at Hereford yesterday? The man is a genius, and will do for me any day of the week! 15th Feb '10 Happy Valentines
Day! I am hoping Exeter races goes ahead this afternoon and if you are going racing you will be pleased to hear that the first 500 racegoers get free chocolate love hearts, so get there early! Newbury did a great job getting there meeting on yesterday after another week of freezing temperatures. They put down 25 acres of covers on the ground to stop the frost getting into the track and had to employ and extra 50 staff to get the covers off. Clerk of the courses often get a lot of stick over racing being on/off due to the weather so I would just like to say well done to Newbury and Richard Osgood for all their efforts to make sure a great days action took place yesterday. I see an old favourite racehorse that was a former inmate at Pond house before being trained by Paul Nicholls starts his point to point career today at Milborne St Andrew in Dorset. Amy Derham is due to have her first point to point ride on Royal Auclair and I am sure this lovely chaser will look after her - good luck Amy! 14th Feb '10
Attheraces I was on Attheraces last night being interviewed by Luke Harvey. I was watching with the sound turned down on my TV and Luke was trying to demonstrate some table tennis strokes to Jason Weaver, it looked like he was swatting flies! I think it was lucky that Luke was able to ride, though mind you some people are not too sure about that! He showed some races of MCP's winners including Make a Stand in the Totesport Trophy and he was absolutely brilliant. Chris Maude did the steering and I think even Luke would have won on him! The argument still goes on at Pond House about who claimed Make a Stand from a race at Leicester. MCP says it was him, but I say that I claimed him! Make a Stand was owned by Peter Deal who now also owns Mamlook, could this be fate?! I shall be glued to the TV at 3.05pm this afternoon. Listen to Tom Scu on the Pipeline this morning from 10am - 09060 400 901 (calls cost £1.50 per minute). I was banned from taking any pictures of MCP riding up our gallops earlier in the week. I cannot the remember the last time that this happened other than in the jeep! He was walking a little bit stiff the next morning so that will teach him! The staff said the horse was bomb proof, could I make my riding come back?! As we all know it is valentines day tomorrow and I tell you the horses get more card than I do! Lough Derg and Well chief were the lucky boys and I captured them reading their cards from their secret admirers! 13th Feb '10
Sona's Second Win! As James eluded to yesterday afternoon, the stable enjoyed another great success when Sona Sasta followed-up his Ffos Las success with a hard fought victory at Huntingdon. The 3m2f trip certainly took some getting, and the Attheraces pundits suggested that perhaps Immense was an unlucky loser following his blunder...all I can say is that jumping is the name of the game and our fellow jumped really well. It was a good performance from Sona Sasta from a 10lbs higher mark than at Ffos Las and he certainly seems to be on the upgrade.
***** I was on the gallops yesterday morning, and although it was very cold, it was a lovely, bright morning. Two of our Totesport Trophy Hurdle entries, Ronaldo des Mottes and Mamlook worked together doing three pieces of work ahead of Saturday's big race at Newbury. They both seemed to be in good form and look to have sound chances at the weekend.
***** If you are looking for a bit of a laugh, tune in to Luke Harvey's show on Attheraces this evening at around 7pm. I will be one of their guests over the telephone. It should be a bit of fun...Luke makes me laugh (and that's not just when he's riding)! ***** We enjoyed another three winners on our text tipping service yesterday, including the stable's winner Sona Sasta, who returned at an SP of 11/4. That is now seven winners from our last eight selections, so it seems as though the lucky pin is still working! To benefit from this great information simply text PIPE to 84010 (texts cost £1.50 per message, to unsubscribe text PIPE STOP to 84010, helpline 01884 840715). 12th Feb '10
Sona Sasta Lands Pipe's 400th Success! It was a landmark day at Huntingdon on Thursday as Sona Sasta continued David's hot streak. The Roger Brookhouse owned son of Sonus had to battle hard to land the 3m2f handicap hurdle under Tom Scudamore and in the process become David's 79th winner of the season and 400th winner under rules. The total includes three flat winners (the latest being Sarah's Boy at Southwell yesterday) and eight hunter chase winners from David's time as a point-to-point trainer. David took over from his father at Pond House in April 2006 and the winners have continued to flow ever since. Among those 400 successes are three Cheltenham Festival winners (Gaspara, An Accordion and Our Vic), a Hennessy Gold Cup winner (Madison du Berlais), a Betfair Bowl winner (Our Vic) and the 2008 Grand National hero Comply Or Die. Clearly thrilled, David said of reaching this milestone, "I am delighted to have trained 400 winners. It only seems like yesterday that I took over the reins at Pond House - it has been a great team effort and I am privileged to have had some great horses to train and I owe a huge debt of thanks to a fantastic bunch of owners and my ever supportive parents." Well done David - here's to the next milestone...500! 11th Feb '10
Sarah's Scores at Southwell! David had his third career win on the flat yesterday afternoon at Southwell, with Sarah's Boy scoring by a comfortable six lengths in the hands of Greg Fairley. I would imagine that he will have to be turned out again before the handicapper can have his say. Jockey Chris Catlin, who rode Sarah's Boy on his first start for the yard, told David that the horse needed to run on the deeper surface of Southwell - he must be a good judge! Chris had ridden David's first two winners on the flat, and has now had a hand in the third.
***** I hope that a few of you took our text tips yesterday as we enjoyed four winners from four selections including the stables' winner Sarah's Boy. The winning SP's were 3/1, 15/8, 6/4 and 11/10 - that's a four-fold of 60/1. If you were lucky enough to take early prices, that acca would have paid out over 100/1! To benefit from this great information, simply text the word PIPE to 84010 (Texts charged at £1.50 per message, to unsubscribe text PIPE STOP to 84010, helpline 01884 84-715). ***** I thought I was hearing things last
night when I was watching the Arsenal v Liverpool game. Arsene
Wenger said that he thought Liverpool deserved a penalty when one of his
players hand-balled in the penalty area - he quickly added that the free
kick that lead to the "might have been penalty" was not a free kick!
I thought that it was too good to be true!
More McCoy Magic! I was watching the 1.30pm race from Market Rasen, and the finish perfectly highlighted the indomitable spirit of A P McCoy. He was fully 10 lengths adrift at the last hurdle, yet still managed to conjure an irresistible late run from his mount Open Day to land the spoils. I don't think I have ever seen a horse make up so much ground after the last and someone obviously agreed as the horse was available to back on the exchanges at 1000/1 in running! No wonder McCoy has always been regarded as the punters pal and the bookies nightmare! ***** Following Shaking Hands victory at Lingfield on Monday, David moved onto the 78 winner mark for the season. I still maintain that the trainers championship should be settled by the number of winners trained like it used to be many years ago. It would make things a whole lot more interesting, with several trainers still in with a shout - as it stands at present, Nicky Henderson has 86 winners, Jonjo O'Neill 82, Paul Nicholls 81, David 78 and Tim Vaughan 72. I think such a proposal would keep the championship more of a focal point throughout the season and give racing enthusiasts more excitement. Perhaps this is an idea that the Racing For Change Committee should consider? Remember, you know where I am if you need anymore innovative suggestions - and I'm going cheap!!! 10th Feb '10
Shaky's Second Win! Shaking Hands won the three mile handicap chase at Lingfield yesterday in good style by eight lengths from Topless. I don't know about topless, the ground looked like it was bottomless but Shaking Hands handled conditions well. Indeed, the further they went, the better he seemed to go and the application of first time blinkers certainly seemed to have a positive effect. If you phoned our Update Line, you will have heard Tom Scu telling us that "Shaking Hands will love Lingfield and will love the ground". It seems he was right, and you can benefit from this type of expert knowledge by calling 09060 400 901 from 10am (Calls charged at £1.50 per min at all times, Helpline 01884 840715).
I thought that The Sliotar ran a very good race in defeat in the novices' chase at Southwell. He came up against a very useful horse in Burton Port, but our fellow confirmed Ffos Las form with Blazing Bailey on worse terms, so it could be argued that he has improved again. He jumped very well and certainly looks capable of winning again over fences. ***** I was in a pub last night and I noticed a picture of the Statue of Liberty on one of the walls. I never knew that the French paid $400,000 to have it built...useless piece of information I know, but you never know when it might come up in a pub quiz! 9th Feb '10
Dan Does It On His Debut! Dan Breen was an impressive winner on his hurdling debut at Doncaster on Sunday, our five year old winning a hot-looking novices' hurdle by nine lengths. I bet owner Stuart Mercer (the brightest man in the world) will still be celebrating. Stuart normally celebrates his runners with champagne wherever they finish, but with a nice winner like that - the bubbly certainly would have been flowing. I wonder what tie he had on?! Anyway, I thought that it was a very taking performance from Dan Breen who was beating a 125 rated rival from level weights - certainly not a bad effort on your first start over timber. He showed a willing attitude when landing his two bumpers and looks sure to enjoy further success over hurdles. It is nice too that Stuart Mercer has another good one to look forward to - he has had some lovely horses down the years, including Lemon's Mill and Indian Jockey. Stuart once famously said, "I have been an owner with the Pipe's for twenty years...I would have got less for murder!" - here's to another twenty years Stuart!
David is still enjoying a great run and Dan Breen was his 77th winner of the current campaign, which already eclipses last season's final total. Indeed, if you had backed all of David's runners at starting price, you would be showing a massive £74.49 profit to a £1 level stake. I wish I was on all of them! ***** I thought that Dunguib was very
impressive when scoring at Leopardstown yesterday. We won by an
extremely easy 2 1/2 lengths without ever coming off of the bridle.
It will be interesting to see what happens when he finally does come
under pressure - if it's ever going to happen it will be at Cheltenham.
There will be a big field of runners at Cheltenham in March and his
jumping is not always 100%, but I have to say that he looks like
Festival banker material to me.
Happy Birthday David! I see that the Irish Racing Post is due to be released this Wednesday. I hope it does very well, but it is a difficult time to be launching a new racing publication (just take a look at The Sportsman) or any newspaper for that matter. I will be interested to see how it fares. ***** It looks to be a great card this afternoon at Leopardstown which features the Hennessy Gold Cup with a first prize of £180,000. Surprisingly, for such a good prize, there is only one English raider - the Nicky Richards trained Money Trix. There are three other Grade 1 races on the card, and better news still they are all on Attheraces! ***** Finally, we can't let today go by without wishing David a very happy birthday! The master of Pond House is 37 today, and I don't suppose he will thank me too much for telling you all! Sadly, I was unable to dig out any of the embarrassing old school pics of David, or feature his birthday in a national newspaper like he did to me last week, so I will just have to get my own back here. Many Happy Returns on your 37th birthday David...yes, that's 37!!! 7th Feb '10
Dubai Delights! I was watching the racing at Meydan again yesterday afternoon, and you cannot fail to be impressed by the course and it's facilities. The racing is extremely competitive out there, as you would expect for the amount of prize money on offer. One observation that I did make however, is that horses that are held-up towards the rear seem to struggle to make the ground up in the straight, while those that race prominently seem to kick off the home bend and keep going. The ground on the turf course was given as good/firm yesterday, but I have to say that it looked to be riding very quick to me. Gerry Supple's brother, Willie rode a 25/1 winner for Doug Watson yesterday aboard Barbecue Eddie. He was yet another one to be towards the fore throughout - I would imagine there will be some celebrating in the Supple family! Willie was a visitor to Pond House not too long ago. He didn't fancy doing any schooling at the time, but in fairness to him he was injured! 6th Feb '10
Things Can Only Get Better! Have you ever had one of those weeks where you can't do right for wrong? Well I have this week...yesterday I mentioned my hard luck story at Exeter, on Tuesday I backed a horse at Southwell that was clear entering the final furlong. The market dangers were all well beaten off, I was feeling quite pleased with myself, and then a 50/1 chance came from nowhere to catch my selection on the line. Still, things can only get better... ***** Looking through the birthdays, I notice that it's David Sullivan's birthday. David owned some very good horses including Risk Me and David Junior and now owns West Ham United. I remember MCP and Carol telling me of a party they attended at David's place near Chigwell in Essex. Apparently the waitresses were all like page 3 girls, and dressed accordingly! Sadly, I was never invited to that party. It's also Lenny Lungo's birthday today. Lenny was one of Martin's first jockeys back in the 70's, and rode MCP's first winner aboard Hit Parade at Taunton in 1975. He subsequently carved out a successful training career, and still holds the record for the most winners trained in Scotland in a season and was responsible for Scotland's last Cheltenham Festival winner. Lenny has always been a grafter and still has the first pound he ever earned. ***** It's been a lovely, bright day down on the gallops and I was impressed with the way that recent Ffos Las hurdle winner Dream Esteem schooled under Tom Scu. You can see David keeping a watching brief in the background.
***** Finally, we would just like to pass on our congratulations to Danny Cook and his partner Carolyn on the birth of their baby daughter last evening at 8.45pm. Both mother and baby are doing well - the new arrival weighed in at 8lbs5oz and as yet the proud parents are yet to decide on a name. 5th Feb '10
Grand National Entries You can feel the tension beginning to mount as the National Hunt season builds towards it's crescendo. With only forty days left to go before the start of the Cheltenham Festival, many of the entries have now closed, and yesterday was the entry stage for Aintree's centrepiece, the John Smith's Grand National. The stable won the big race a couple of years ago with Comply Or Die, and he ran a great race in defence of his crown when runner-up twelve months later. He again features among the 112 entries, with nine of those being from Pond House. Despite an overall drop in the number of horses entered, it looks to be a high class renewal, with the lowest rated horse on a mark of 120, while Alberta's Run is the highest rated with a mark of 164. The Pond House entries comprise of former winner Comply Or Die, Madison du Berlais, Our Vic, Pablo du Charmil, Seven Is My Number, The Package, Faasel, Piraya and Over The Creek. The handicapper now has a few days to frame this special handicap, and the weights will be announced at a luncheon in London on 16th February. Be sure to check back here for the weights, and initial reaction to the handicap that day. ***** Talk about hard luck! I was
watching the closing novices' hurdle from Exeter yesterday
afternoon...everything was going swimmingly, I was clutching a voucher
for 7/2 about Emma Lavelle's Court In Motion and I was feeling very
pleased with myself. He came to the last clear and going well, he
jumped the hurdle fine and them promptly stumbled and fell a couple of
strides later! It just goes to show that the old adage is true,
there are no sure things in racing.
Eyes On The Sky! It's been a long while since I can remember losing as many meetings as we have in this country recently. If it's not one thing, it's another...snow, frozen ground, waterlogging! I left Brixham the other morning and it was -6°c, while the following morning it was +7°c, that's a fluctuation of 13°c in only 24 hours. Now I'm no meteorologist, but I don't suppose that sort of fluctuation is the norm. Consequently, meetings have been lost. Just look at Saturday, while Doncaster were more than hopeful of passing their morning inspection, Cheltenham didn't think that they would be able to race. As you know, it turned out to be the other way around - who would want to be a clerk of the course these days?! I am pleased to report that Exeter has passed it's 8am inspection this morning and racing will go ahead this afternoon. Newcastle has not been so fortunate and have had to abandon this afternoon's card, while Leicester inspect again at 10.45am. Wincanton plan to inspect at 8.00am tomorrow ahead of their Thursday afternoon meeting. ***** I was watching the beginners chase from Taunton yesterday afternoon, and it occurred to me that perhaps it should have been called an absolute beginners chase, as only three of the field managed to complete the course. King's Forest eventually won the contest, but I don't suppose too many jockeys will be queuing up to ride the others in the near future! ***** On a sad note, Cheltenham Festival winner An Accordion has been retired. Our nine year old gelding has struggled with wind problems despite corrective surgery, and he finished a well beaten seventh in Taunton's three mile novices' hurdle yesterday afternoon. Owner Brian Kilpatrick has been a long-standing patron of Pond House and has owned such stars as Sabin du Loir, Aquilifer, Cache Fleur and Terao. An Accordion has given all of his connections many happy memories. He was unbeaten in three starts in point-to-point's before quickly establishing himself as a very good "bumper" horse under rules. He won a couple of novices' chases in the 2006/7 season before winning valuable handicap chases at Doncaster and the Cheltenham Festival in 2008. We hope that he enjoys a very long and happy retirement, it is certainly well deserved. 3rd Feb '10
David Goes Downtown In Aid Of Racing
Charities! Be warned...have a good supply of cotton wool to hand for 8th March! That is when the faces of racing are releasing "Cheltenham", a charity re-working of the 1964 hit "Downtown" by Petula Clarke. David was among a large group of the racing community that appeared in a recording studio in London last night to record the song in aid of the charities, The Riding For The Disabled Association, The Bob Champion Cancer Trust, Racing Welfare and the Irish Horse Welfare Trust. Also in attendance were champion jockey A P McCoy, Paddy Brennan, Liam Treadwell, pundits John McCririck, Derek Thompson, Mike Cattermole and Mick Fitzgerald, trainers Paul Nicholls, Nicky Henderson and Nick Gifford, and owners Andy Stewart and Clive Smith. There will also be a recording session in Ireland where a number of their personalities, including Paul Carberry, Barry Geraghty and Charlie Swann will record a second chorus track. While the event was well attended, there were some notable absentees from the session, and I am told that some trainers even put the phone down on organisers when asked to give of their vocal talents! I'm really looking forward to hearing the finished product (and David)- it will be available on itunes for 99p and CD for £1.99 and benefits some marvellous causes. It's amazing the things that can be done in a recording studio these days - just take a look at those two lads that stuck their fingers in the electric socket - they are currently no.2 in the charts! Let's hope that "Cheltenham" can go one better than them. ***** I was pleased to see that there is confidence in my ante-post bet for the Triumph Hurdle at next month's Cheltenham Festival. You may recall that some time ago I suggested that the former Freddie Head trained According was well fancied for the four year old hurdle, well he is now as short as 10/1 with some firms following solid support. I had a bit on at double those odds, and I certainly hope that a few of you followed my advice as well. The last time I had an ante-post bet in the race was on Baron Blakeney in 1981. I took 50/1, and he finished at 66's! I can stills see Harry Metcalfe, who traded under the name Jack Bevan smiling at me when he paid me out! Having said that, you can't really scoff at a 50/1 winner now, can you? 2nd Feb '10
Another Double At Plumpton! The yard's hot run continued at Plumpton yesterday with another brace from our only two runners at the Sussex track. Sure Josie Sure and Grands Crus both won in good style and look like future chasers in the making, in the meantime they look certain to win their share over hurdles. Sure Josie Sure jumped better than the opposition and beat Megasue quite comfortably to confirm recent form on slightly worse terms, while Grands Crus won by an impressive eight lengths, both of them seeming to appreciate the soft ground. Judging by yesterday's performance, they are already more than useful and would appear certain to stay further in future. Tom Scu rode the pair, taking his seasonal tally to 58, while David has now enjoyed 76 winners so far this season - that equals last season's final tally...and it's only February 1st! Fingers crossed that this hot streak will continue. 1st Feb '10
A Look Back At The Week The track at Meydan in Dubai that opened earlier in the week looks absolutely out of this world and will surely now become the benchmark that all other truly international courses will have to look to. And so it should be...with a cost of £1.5 billion and a capacity of 98,000 people! I saw a picture of one of the hotels that overlooks the course, it had a swimming pool where you could see all the way around the track - rather than a swim-up bar, they could do with a swim-up Tote kiosk or the like! Anyway, the new surface looks good - it all seems light years away from Southwell's all weather track. ***** I did enjoy watching owner Frank Michael defending his jockey's actions from John McCririck on Attheraces last Saturday. He asked Big Mac what he bought to the table - nothing, "You just make a living out of racing, I put money into the game". Your sentiments about owners is absolutely right and I applaude you for that Frank, but in fairness, the jockey in question has not appealed against his ban. ***** I see that Richard Dunwoody is going to walk the Great Wall of China next. I remember a story about Cyril Regis, who was once asked if he wanted to see the great wall. He replied "Once you have seen one wall, you have seen them all". 31st Jan '10
At The Double! The great run of the yard continued at Chepstow yesterday with another double courtesy of Horsford and Quinte du Chatelet. Both of our winners seemed to appreciate the heavy ground, and it seems that all of the efforts to keep the horses going throughout the frost and snow is paying dividends. That's six winners in two days (five of them partnered by Tom Scu) and the stable's tally now stands at 74. I was pleased to see Horsford win for long standing patron Brian Kilpatrick. Brian is a big Rochdale fan - I mention this because I feel as though I have been mugged! I have had a bet with Brian that West Ham will finish higher in their league than Rochdale. Rochdale have had 58 breakaways this season, so I had better send Brian a cockle & hen...next year I will want to be betting on the handicap! The double was completed by Quinte du Chatelet who was winning his third race of the season. His owners Garth and Anne Broom are having a marvellous season, and this was their eighth winner from only twenty runners - that's a 40% strike rate!
***** I understand that both Doncaster and Cheltenham are inspecting again at 10am this morning. There should be little problem with Doncaster, although it could be touch and go with Cheltenham's fixture - fingers crossed that they both go-ahead as they look to be blinding cards. 30th Jan '10
Fantastic Four! What a day for the yard yesterday with an across the card four-timer. Hunterview started the ball rolling at Warwick under a good ride from (in-form) Danny Cook. Hunterview was a classy flat performer and it was good to see him battle on to prevail in a tight finish ahead of well-fancied favourite Riskareas. David attended the meeting at Ffos Las, with Tom Scu doing the driving. I expect he is glad that he did - a hat-trick at Wales' newest track completing a memorable day for the (in-form) yard and moving him up a place into third in the trainers championship. It was a meeting to remember for (in-form) owner Roger Brookhouse too, who was fortunate enough to own all three of our winners at the course. Dream Esteem made a bright start to her hurdling career when springing a 16/1 surprise in the second division of the maiden hurdle, our mare scoring by 5 lengths. The second leg of the Brookhouse treble was landed in fine style by former point winner Chartreux. The grey son of Colonel Collins won impressively by 7 lengths and he looks like a reallly nice prospect - he is now unbeaten in three starts. He looks like he will make a really nice chaser and should be kept on the right side of. Finally, Sona Sasta put a moderate effort behind him to score in tenacious fashion and complete a hat-trick for (in-form) Tom Scudamore. It was a good day all round! 29th Jan '10
Latest from the Gallops! While I was down at the gallops this morning I managed to catch a few of the horses schooling during first lot. They included dual bumper winner Dan Breen (Gerry Supple) jumping upsides Casual Style (Johnny Farrelly), and winning pointer Mr Bennett (Tom Scudamore). As you can see from the pictures they all jumped fluently. 28th Jan '10
Crackers! I was watching the Golden Button Challenge, which is the cross country race that I was talking about a few weeks ago (where they race alongside the River Severn). Paul Carberry won the three mile contest over countryside, hedges, ditches and timber fences despite his mount refusing at one of the obstacles! I was going to say that it goes to show you that jump jockeys are completely bonkers, but flat pilot Eddie Ahern was also in the race (in fact, he won it back in 2007)! Not being a rider myself, I find it hard to imagine why any of these people would want to put their lives at risk. The same could be said of the jockey's wanting to ride in the Grand National - you would not believe how many people phone up for rides in the Aintree showcase. If I were a jockey, I think I would stick to hurdles, or less risky still, the flat...having said that, I would be carrying a few pounds overweight these days (especially after all the birthday cake I put away yesterday)! Talking of Paul Carberry, I remember J P McManus betting him £50,000 that he couldn't give up drinking for two years. Of course, Carberry is the man when there is big money at stake and duly won the bet. Carberry has long been known as one of the wild men of the weighing and he rode on a few occasions for MCP. He always gave 100%, but sometimes you would have to ask whether he was too brave for his own good (unlike me)! 28th Jan '10
It's My Birthday! Talk about unlucky...what about our runner Sure Josie Sure yesterday? She was brought down in a bizarre incident at the first flight in Leicester's mares' novices' hurdle. She had absolutely no chance of navigating the first hurdle when Miss Nightshade went violently left in front of the field, running from the inside of the track to the outside of the hurdle, ejecting Tom O'Brien before the flight and completely taking out Tom Scu and odds on favourite Sure Josie Sure. Favourite backers can consider themselves extremely unlucky, and as far as I am concerned the horse responsible should be renamed Miss Deadly Nightshade! ***** You wouldn't be crying into your beer if you have been following Barry Geraghty this season. The Irishman boasts a fantastic 41% strike rate on his mounts in this country this season, and an even better 47% strike rate when riding for his boss Nicky Henderson. Indeed, he is showing a profit of over £42 to a level £1 stake - who needs a form book?! ***** I hope that you phoned the Pipeline Update yesterday. Followers would have been rewarded with no fewer than four winning selections at 13/2, 2/1, 8/11 and 8/15. You too can benefit from this top-class information by calling 09060 400 901 from 10am (calls charged at £1.50 per min at all times, Helpline 01884 840715). ***** Finally, I notice that it is one of David's assistant's birthdays today! Yes, I am 63 today...enough said. They say that you are as old as the woman you feel, so it's no wonder I have been feeling really old lately (fortunately my wife does not read this website)! Anyway, from the then and now pictures below, you can see how time has taken it's toll on the hardest working man at Pond House! 27th Jan '10
Funny Old Game! Sometimes it can be amazing how much a horse can improve for it's first run. One of my men in Newmarket gave me a horse to follow that was supposed to be catching pigeons on the gallops. The trainer ran it at Lingfield on it's debut, the money was down and the horse duly turned in a stinking effort, being beaten fully two furlongs from home. My man on the gallops could not believe it. Anyway, as I am sure you can guess, the horse in question duly reappeared next time out and bolted up at Wolverhampton - I didn't have a penny on him...neither did my Newmarket gallops man, which made me feel a bit better! It's a funny old game! ***** I did like the comment from Cynical Sid in the Chatroom section of today's Racing Post. Sid says, "Paul Carberry must be a hell of a jockey, he seems to have won more races while he is banned than most win when they're not!" Paul is currently serving a thirty day "ban" following a positive breathalyser test in Ireland. ***** I have had a few quid on the ante-post market for the Triumph Hurdle. My early fancy is for According, who was a three time winner on the level in France for Freddie Head. He is still available at 20/1 for the big race, although most firms are generally only offering between 14's and 16's. I am sure he will be shorter on the day. 26th Jan '10
Big Race
Double! What a fantastic weekend for the yard with an across the card big race double at Ascot and Haydock on Saturday. Mamlook was very impressive in the Grade 2 handicap hurdle under a confident ride from Hadden Frost and I was pleased to see him ride a big race winner. Lough Derg ran his usual gallant race under his welter burden and lost nothing in defeat, finishing a close third under Tom Scudamore.
Over at Haydock, Our Vic provided us with a real tear-jerker by landing the Peter Marsh Chase under Danny Cook. The sat nav obviously did the trick this time as Danny made all aboard the veteran to score a famous and emotional triumph. Poor old Danny has taken some real stick over his Cheltenham ride and I was delighted to see him repay the faith that David and David Johnson had placed in him. It was a brilliant performance from both horse and jockey and it has been very well received by all racing fans. We would like to thank everyone who has taken the time to e-mail us their kind words of congratulations. We tipped up Mamlook on our Text Tipping service on Saturday, as well as Peddlers Cross and Diamond Harry (three winners at respective odds of 10/1, 11/8 and 8/11) - I hope that a few of you were on. 25th Jan '10
Weekend
Roundup! Be aware if you receive free text tips to your mobile phone. It's yet another tipping scam whereby these fraudsters, currently masquerading under the name Racing Post Extra Limited send unsolicited texts and then press people for a £1,500 annual subscription. They are clearly trying to cash in on the name of the newspaper, but there is no connection whatsoever. We however, have been in great form with our text tips and are once again showing a level stakes profit this month. These selections are 100% genuine and proofed by the Racing Post (the genuine one) to ensure authenticity and accuracy of any claims made. To benefit from this information, simply text the word PIPE to 84010 (texts are charged at £1.50 per message, to unsubscribe text PIPE STOP to 84010, helpline 01884 840715). ***** Fontwell are introducing an interesting initiative on Sunday 28th February. For a fee of £45 per person (pre-booking required) you will be entitled to entry to the racecourse, a race card, afternoon tea and a tour of the course in the company of John McCririck. Whilst I know plenty of people that would be willing to pay not to see "Big Mac", I still think the scheme should be given a chance, aferall, £45 to watch McCririck struggle around Fontwell sounds like excellent value! ***** I was looking through the form of a race at Southwell earlier in the week and I couldn't help but notice that no fewer than eight of the runners in one race had raced against each other on their previous start! Of course, the result was different this time around...who says punting is an easy game?! 24th Jan '10
Born To Ride! There's a great quote in the Racing Post today from A P McCoy - he says, "I was born to ride horses, not do the dishes". I don't know what I was born to do, but I go along with A P - it was not to do the dishes! I bet a lot of other men think that way as well, anyway, I will show the article to my wife a little later on (or maybe I will tell her over the telephone)! ***** There's some cracking good racing today from Ascot, Haydock and Wincanton and we are represented by no fewer than eleven runners at four meetings, including on the flat at Lingfield. The Champion Hurdle Trial at Haydock should certainly be interesting, and I will be looking to see how defending champion Punjabi fares. He is currently around the 10/1 mark for hurdling's blue ribband in March, and I would have thought that anything less than an impressive win here would be considered a disappointment. ***** Those of you who enjoy a little flutter at the weekend could do a lot worse than have a crack at today's Scoop6. The bet comprises solely of the jumps meetings this afternoon and there's a nice pot of £350,000 for grabs. All you have to do is pick the winner of each of the six races...easy! 23rd Jan '10
1,000 Up for
Timmy! Congratulations to Timmy Murphy who rode his 1,000th winner yesterday at Taunton on Wizard Of Edge, seventeen years after his first success aboard Gayloire at Kilbeggan. There are not many jockeys who will ride that many winners during their careers - it's a dangerous sport, with so many getting injured. He has enjoyed tremendous success aboard the likes of Comply Or Die on whom he won the 2008 Grand National, as well as eight Cheltenham Festival winners. Timmy rode a Festival winner for Martin as far back as 1997 aboard Terao - blimey, that was thirteen years ago...doesn't time fly when you are having fun?! ***** The Racing Post have today published a list of the admission charges for all of the British racecourses for 2010. Many of them have frozen their prices at the same level as for 2009, but I really think they should be doing more to attract racegoers. The one that I like the look of is Towcester - they have left their admission the same as last year...free (except Bank Holidays and Ladies Day, where it costs a tenner). Racing is still good value when you compare it to other sports like football - just look at Torquay United, a division two team that charges £17 admission. However, we should be looking to drop the prices in order to attract more visitors - I am sure that they will spend more money over the bar and on food as a result. 22nd Jan '10
Ludlow
Abandoned! Sadly Ludlow failed to pass their inspection this morning and the meeting has been abandoned. The course still has a snow covering on it and clerk of the course Bob Davies phoned me at 7 o'clock this morning to give me the bad news. It is excellent when the ground staff are on the ball like that - I know that many of the clerks get plenty of stick when they leave it too late to call the meetings off, so full marks to Ludlow. They tell me that Bob wasn't a bad jockey in his day - if I were a little older I might even remember him riding! As a consequence of Ludlow's abandonment, Tom Scudamore will now re-route to Taunton where he will ride all of the stable's runners this afternoon. ***** There is a great picture of the new tapeta surface in Dubai in today's Racing Post. They have been holding trial races, and both Frankie Dettori and Kieren Fallon have ridden the new track. Dettori says that it is "awesome", but somehow I cannot imagine him berating the surface with his boss, Sheikh Mohammed watching from the stands. The course itself looks to be really wide, and the stands appear to be out of this world - it is just a shame that Sheik Mohammed is not a West Ham supporter! ***** We were paid a visit by a nice bunch of lads this morning from Air Systems (SW) who are based in Nailsea. They had bought a morning at yard at the Talksport Dinner that I attended with Martin in Bristol at the beginning of December. Derek Thompson was the master of ceremonies for that event, and he has a funny way of convincing you to donate prizes. Anyway, Andrew and the boys were the successful bidders, and were taken to see the horses during exercise before being treated to a champagne breakfast and tour of the yard. They will be off to Taunton races this afternoon, and I hope that we can point them in the direction of a winner or two. 21st Jan '10
All Weather
Jumping?! I notice that there are proposed trials for all weather jump meetings again. I remember years ago when we actually had hurdles and fences alongside our all weather gallop - we used to swing them on to the gallops and school over them. We also used to takes some horses to Lingfield and have a sort of trial race with them - one day we had a horse that "won" one of these trials by an absolute mile...of course, everyone wanted to know the name of the horse. Well, it was Regal Ambition who went on to win the Sun Alliance Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. It will be interesting to see what happens as when jumping previously took place there were a number of nasty injuries to the jockeys when they fell off. ***** Charlie Swann is 42 today. He was a fantastic Irish jockey and he rode plenty of winners for us. Charlie used to come over and stay with Martin and then ride for us. He did used to make me laugh quite regularly as he couldn't work out Martin's friend, Richard at all - having said that, I have know Richard for thirty years and I still can't work him out myself! Charlie trains nowadays, and whenever I see him, he is always very polite and is a great credit to the sport. Happy birthday Charlie! 20th Jan '10
Scu Nominated For Ride Of The
Season Tom Scudamore has been nominated along with three other jockeys for the ride of the year for his efforts aboard Lough Derg in last season's National Spirit hurdle at Fontwell. If Tom gets the award, I hope that there will be plenty of tissues to hand as Tom is sure to break down and cry like he did after the race! ***** I see that Terry Ramsden is 58 today. Terry was a very big player in the betting market a few years ago and he had a horse with us called My Dominion. It reminds me of a little story about the horse...I recall going to Doncaster Sales with Martin when a little gelding came up from the Easterby yard. MCP made the winning bid of 300 guineas and promptly tried to sell me a half share for 200 guineas (he never was very good at working out 50%!). I told him that I wasn't interested as you should never buy a horse from Easterby - of course My Dominion won several on the bounce including the Tote Hurdle at Newbury...certainly not one of my better judgements to turn that one down! Anyway, many happy returns Terry! ***** Below you will see another picture of the horses schooling over hurdles yesterday. This time we have Jadalee, who runs at Southwell this afternoon - he was partnered by Johnny Farrelly and our seven year old jumped really well in his warm-up for today's race. We jumped a few over fences as well, including Whimper who also runs at Southwell today - he is pictured in the hands of Danny Cook. 19th Jan '10
School Report! We were busy on the schooling grounds this morning as we put several through their paces over hurdles. I managed to get a few nice shots, including these below of Jonothan Lower and Hadden Frost schooling Gulf of Aqaba and Northern Jem upsides. I also managed to get a nice picture of Grands Crus jumping hurdles on his own under Danny Cook - as you can see they all jumped very nicely. 18th Jan '10
The Sliotar Successful! The stable enjoyed a nice winner at Ffos Las yesterday when The Sliotar (Our head lad Eddie Buckley tells me that it the name the name of the ball in hurling) won the novices' chase in the hands of A P McCoy. I asked Eddie why they didn't just call the horse "Hurling Ball" - funny enough, he didn't have an answer for that one! Anyway, I digress...The Sliotar put up a great performance to beat a couple of very decent ex-hurdlers Blazing Bailey and Special Envoy, with AP at his strongest in the saddle.
***** We were all very sad to hear of the news that former inmate Celestial Gold was put down yesterday on the advice of vets. We will fondly remember him as the horse who pulled off the famous Paddy Power, Hennessy Gold Cup double in 2004 for MCP. He has spent his retirement with the Moorcroft Racehorse Welfare Centre in West Sussex who looked after him very well. As a racehorse Celestial Gold won over a quarter of a million pounds and earned a career high handicap mark of 162 when landing the Betfair Bowl at Aintree during the 2006 Grand National meeting. He won three point-to-point's for David before joining MCP and winning a further five times. 18th Nov '10
2 Winners from 2 Selections Thursday -
9/2 & 12/1!
There's Something You Don't See
Everyday! The picture below is akin to finding the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot, the Abominable Snowman or even life on Mars! It is a picture of none other than our travelling head lad and television personality Craig Wylie doing some work in the yard. He is pictured washing off Quinte du Chatelet after exercise on the gallops on Friday. Racegoers will surely recognise Craig, who has conducted many interviews with Attheraces over the years - he sounds a bit Scottish, and he has more rabbit than Sainsburys! The news is such a turn-up that it even made the National press yesterday (in David's weekly column in the Mirror) - It is only 17th January, and already I am worried that we are going to struggle to find an event newsworthy enough to top this for the remainder of the year!
***** The snow has given way to rain down here and it has made the ground very testing. Kempton did well to get their meeting on yesterday, but it really looked like hard work in those conditions. It's been nice having the jumping back, but it's certainly not for the faint-hearted! 17th Jan '10
Jumping's Back! It's good to see some jump racing back on the agenda and Kempton should be congratulated for their efforts in making sure this fixture goes ahead. There has been no jumping action for thirteen days now...the ground is going to be very testing, so it is going to be the yards that have managed to keep their horses going best that are going to be the ones to follow. Gary Moore has been getting plenty of winners on the flat, so any of his jumpers should certainly need closely looking at. ***** We had a visit from long standing patron Stuart Mercer yesterday afternoon. You may recall that Stuart is the owner that wears the brightest coloured ties you have ever seen! It was a funny coincidence that we were talking about Indian Jockey only yesterday morning - he was one of Stuart's horses that won ten times during the course of the 1996/97 season. Stuart is one of those people that will always brighten up a room (and I don't just mean with his ties!). ***** I was interested to read that Nicky Richards has taken the drastic steps of moving ten of his higher profile horses to Newmarket in an attempt to beat the freeze and keep his horses exercising. Others include Monet's Garden, According To John and Skipper's Brig - these should at least be fit, and it would be fascinating to know which others have taken up residence in retired trainer Geoff Wragg's overflow yard. 16th Jan '10
Welcome Back! If you are ever in Lanzarote and are a keen fan of racing, Martin tells me that you have to pay a visit to The Irish Anvil Bar & Restaurant in Playa Blanca (Next to the Ferry Harbour). They show all of the racing there, so MCP felt right at home. The bar has connections with former jockey Pat O'Connor, who rode a horse that I used to own called Three Of Diamonds in the Grand National. His nickname in the yard was "Loppy" - that's the horse, not Pat! Anyway, Martin and Carol had a nice time, though as you can see from the picture below MCP liked to stay in touch with everything that was happening. Carol took a picture of Martin on the phone listening to a race commentary - I would say that by the expression on his face that the horse was beaten! As you can see, Martin spent plenty of time relaxing with a beer, while studying a book about back problems in horses, some of which was written by Mary Bromiley.
***** There is a good picture of Deano's Beeno in today's Racing Post. He is enjoying a well earned retirement at Greatwood. Deano's was a great horse, and I still fondly recall the day that he lowered the colours of that great stayer Baracouda at Ascot in the Long Walk Hurdle under an inspired ride from A P McCoy - he was one of AP's favourite horses and it is good to see him enjoying himself. 15th Jan '10
Temperature Rising We still have a lot of snow on the ground here at Pond House but it does feel quite a lot warmer this morning, well it is above freezing at least! Hopefully the snow will begin to thaw and fingers crossed there will be some jump racing action in the coming days. Our debutant runner, Takamaru was a bit of a naughty boy at Southwell yesterday. He did not want to play and let Tom Scu get on board. It was his first time on a racecourse and everything was new and it is amazing how the different conditions seem to upset some horses. It is a bit like horses going into the stalls. You can put them through everyday at home as many times as you like but you can take them to the track and they refuse to go anywhere near them. I am sure Takamaru will be fine next time and he is perfectly ok this morning, there is even a photo of him in the Racing Post on page 11! I see in the Racing Post today that Patrick Haslam is retiring next month and his 25 year old son, Ben is taking over. So, another good trainer is retiring and will be giving his son a helping hand no doubt. I think in few years time we should have a past masters race! I would not want to ask a Scouser this morning how Liverpool got on against Reading last night. Football is a way of life in that part of the country and if the club had some money I think the managers job would be in danger. Anyway, even if he is given the boot he will get about £41 million in compensation and get a new job in a warmer climate, not too bad is it?! 14th Jan '10
A Bumper Turnout! I am looking forward to the all bumper card on the all weather at Southwell this afternoon. I was amazed at just how many entries there were- it goes to show you that these type of races are very much needed. Let's just hope that following the latest downfall of snow the roads are okay for the horse boxes to travel. We had runners at the course yesterday and so our two runners are already there. Telegraph Hill (which is right next to Exeter racecourse) was closed last night owing to the heavy snow. Some people were forced to abandon their cars. Although the road has been reopened, it still looks very tricky so be careful if you are on the A38 in that vicinity. ***** Martin & Carol are currently in Lanzarote. MCP has been ringing in everyday for commentaries on the races. He told me yesterday that he has been sitting by the pool listening in on the phone! He's also keeping up to date by looking on our website each day, and yesterday he saw the pictures of the yard still covered in snow. I think he was a little surprised, but then I would imagine that when you are in shorts and drinking a Pimms by the pool, it hard to imagine what is going on in the real world! We have had plenty more snow overnight and I think they are going to be in for a real shock when they arrive back. Let's hope that Bristol airport is open - I will have to get some of the staff up there to clear the runway, afterall, we wouldn't want them to be stuck in 23°c of heat now...would we?! 13th Jan '10
Bring Me Sunshine! It's amazing - I drove to the yard this morning from South Devon and the only snow I have seen is surrounding the yard! It's still very icy - they say that when snow hangs about, you are going to get some more...and although no-one knows who said it, they could be right as the forecasters are predicting more downfalls this afternoon.
It looks as though we may get some more jumping action this weekend at Fontwell and Musselburgh - let's hope so, as by then it will be a fortnight without any National Hunt racing. I am looking forward to the all bumper card at Southwell tomorrow - I have already been told of two that are well fancied. ***** There was an amusing quote in the Post about Brendan Powell's winner, Slick Mover at Kempton yesterday. The horse is half owned by Roger Stanley who also owns Madison du Berlais in partnership. The trainer told flat jockey David Probert that he could have the ride on Madison du Berlais in the Grand National - it's a shame they did not publish the jockey's response! ***** We had another nice winner on our text tipping service yesterday. Burghley was well backed from 5/1 into 7/2 and duly obliged with a bit in hand. We are well in front again this month following a profitable December. To subscribe to this service simply text PIPE to 84010 (texts cost £1.50 per message, to unsubscribe text PIPE STOP to 84010) from your mobile. 12th Jan '10
Now There's A Good Idea! I noticed a good letter from one of our owners, Sean Tracey in yesterday's Racing Post. He addressed the current issue of lost fixtures due to the bad weather. He went on to say that the racecourses in Scotland have now lost over 50% of their jumping fixtures and that some of those tracks (including Wetherby) would now go on to make a loss this year. Sean asked the question, why can't the BHA add some new meetings to the fixture lists? I am sure the tracks would jump at the chance to host some extra meetings and generate some much needed revenue. Afterall, there have been countless extra all weather fixtures added, so why not put on some additional National Hunt meetings when conditions allow? 11th Jan '10
Weekend Roundup! It's been a really difficult week in the yard because of the cold snap. With all of the snow and ice still on the roads, many of the staff have struggled to go get in to work. One of our senior secretaries, Gail has been getting a lift in to work on her partner's tractor, and even that broke down one day! The problem is with the small country lanes that you need to follow to get to us. None of them have been treated, so they are all covered with black ice. I had trouble just getting out of the top of the drive at Pond House the other day - it is on a slight slope and my wheels just kept spinning round...in the end I finished up using ant-freeze on the road. It seemed to work, although it's an expensive way of getting rid of the ice! The weather has played havoc with the fixture list as well, with the last turf action over the jumps now taking place a week ago and even a handful of all weather meetings going west. Prospects for the week ahead look none too clever either, although the BHA have put on a new meeting, consisting solely of "bumpers" at Southwell on Wednesday. Hopefully that will beat the freeze. ***** I was contemplating applying for the position of Trainee Clerk of the Course at Sedgefield. I reckon that this has got to be one of the best jobs in racing - afterall, they only ever race there about three days per year...I wonder if you have to go in more often than that?! 10th Jan '10
Furious Finish at Philadelphia! Talk about fighting out a finish! I was amazed watching the sports news this morning to see the closing stages of a race from Philadelphia. Two of the jockeys were punching each other while riding out a finish...now, that can't be easy - I remember from my all too brief career as a horseman that it is hard enough just holding onto the reins without actually getting into a scrap as well! Unsurprisingly, there was a stewards enquiry - I wonder whether it was to decide who won?! ***** We have more action on the all-weather this afternoon with Kempton being given the go-ahead to race today. Lingfield are holding a third inspection at 10am - apparently the problem is not with the state of the track, but the safety of racegoers. ***** I see that the picture of Johnny Farrelly with the snowman made it into David's column in The Mirror this morning. It is quite difficult to differentiate between the pair as the snowman is also wearing one of those silly hats. I think we are going to have to hold a competition and give Johnny's headgear away as a prize. Second prize should be two of those hats! 9th Jan '10
All Weather Action! Lingfield passed a 6.30 am inspection this morning, so at least we have some all weather (or most weather) racing to look forward to. They said yesterday that the tracks were okay but that there were no ambulances available to attend. Sadly, it looks as though there will be no jump racing for the next week at least and I think that some of the other jockeys will be taking a leaf out of A P McCoy's book (he has gone to Barbados!). Anyway, I bet that the golf course has some pretty big divots in it now! I understand that Timmy Murphy has gone skiing in Scotland, but you don't even need to go that far - there are plenty of places in the West country you could ski at the moment! As you can see from the picture below, Johnny Farrelly has been busy as usual. You will see him pictured with the Pond House snowman outside of the hostel - funny enough, it looks like Johnny's being given the cold shoulder again! Keep smiling! 8th Jan '10
Here's Jonny! We recently had an e-mail from Australia from an old friend of Martin's, Jonny Van Trump. They both went to Queen's College, Taunton and had lots of fun together, although they were usually in trouble! Martin tells me that back in 1961 they had a £50 bet on the 1,000 Guineas winner Sweet Solera in the Epsom Oaks. They both left their classes to listen to the radio in their house room (apparently, Martin left his history lesson with the Headmaster) - all of the lads knew what was going on, so when he came back he gave them the thumbs up. After Jonny left school he went to Australia. He came back many years later to see MCP and the pair went to Exeter races - it was the time when the Pipe/Scu combination were winning everything, and he couldn't understand why people wanted his autograph! Anyway, it was great to hear from Jonny - he keeps up to date with life at Pond House by reading our website everyday. If there are any more Old Queenians that are out there that would like to get in touch, Martin would be thrilled to hear from you - e-mail: martin@martinpipe.co.uk 7th Jan '10
The Big
Freeze! The temperatures have really dropped down here at Pond House. When I left the motorway this morning the temperature gauge on my car read -11°c - that's the coldest I remember it being! The motorway was okay but the back roads are terrible - it looks as if they haven't been gritted at all and conditions are very icy and treacherous. We are having to go around picking up several members of staff in our 4x4's, mind you the one's that live in the back of beyond look like they are having the day off! Our gallops are okay, but it is just a case of getting the horses down there that is the problem. Fortunately we have a big indoor canter, so the horses are still getting plenty of exercise. Sadly Ffos Las, who were our last chance of some jump racing this week, have been forced to abandon their Saturday meeting which was due to feature the revival of the Welsh Champion Hurdle. We have some very fond memories of the race from it's time at Chepstow and we were successful a number of times with the likes of High Knowl (who beat Champion Hurdler Celtic Shot) and Potentate, who won the race on no fewer than three occasions. It now looks like it will be at least another year until we can see it again. The problems with the all weather racecourses seem to be likely to continue - the surfaces themselves are said to be fine, but the roads surrounding the tracks are very dangerous. Apparently we have another couple of weeks of this cold spell to look forward to! 7th Jan '10
Snow, snow, snow! The snow seems to be all over the country at the moment and we even have snow in Brixham! Its the first time in 30 years that I have know in down here, I must admit the fishing boats do look strange with snow all over them. All three jumps meetings have already been abandoned for tomorrow. I do like the forecast ahead of Sedgefield's scheduled meeting for Saturday "something akin to a miracle needed!" I have seen many miracles recently, I mean I did see Derek Thompson buying a round of drinks at a Bristol hotel, before I found out that it was actually a free bar! There is all-weather meetings scheduled for today but we hear they are all going to have inspections, so keep an eye out to hear if racing goes ahead. Our gallops were in good order yesterday and I took a picture of Sona Sasta doing his work. We have quite a lot of snow at Pond House this morning and below is a picture taken outside of our offices this morning. Most of our staff have managed to get into work despite the horrendous road conditions so work will continue pretty much as normal today! 6th Jan '10
More Bright
Ideas! I see that the people behind the Racing For Change initiative have come up with lots of new ideas to get people to come racing. In the spring they are going to be trialling decimal odds, while jockeys and trainers are to be listed by their full names in race cards from March. There are plenty of other ideas, but to be honest I think that most of the ideas they are trying to push are a load of non-events. As I have maintained for sometime now, it is just too expensive to go racing on a regular basis. Let's drop the price of entry to a level that normal people can afford - not everyone has a big flat hat or a big fat wallet. Racing may be known as the "Sport of Kings", but right now it needs to be looking out for it's followers at grass roots level. When Towcester admit racegoers for free, they inevitably get a good turn out and the punters end up spending more over the bar. The average person only has so much money to spend, and racecourses can only take it off of them once - he either spends most of it to get into the track, or saves money on admission and spends it when inside the track...so why not let the punters in for free? Give them an enjoyable experience and they may well return more often! People just don't have the spare cash to spend on luxuries such as going racing at present, and it is not just our sport that is being affected. I was watching some of the F A Cup football matches and was amazed to see that Premiership side Wigan only had an attendance of 5,000! It's about time that everything was made more affordable again! 5th Jan '10
Take Notus -
Another Double Yesterday! Am I glad that Plumpton went ahead yesterday! Both of the stables runners won - Notus de la Tour looked impressive when winning the novices' hurdle in good style by six lengths. The second home, Ranjobaie had some decent form, including when runner-up to the 148 rated Menorah at Warwick. He jumped well and looked to have won with a bit in hand - he already has a rating of 122 and is now quoted a 33/1 chance for the Triumph Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. Notus de la Tour won for the Racing For Change partnership and runs in the colours of Peter Deal. Peter has enjoyed considerable success in the past with the likes of Make A Stand and Blowing Wind also carrying his silks. Talking of colours, wasn't Master Overseer good in the Sussex National? He is now unbeaten in two starts for Anne and Garth Broom of Brocade Racing since his purchase. They are enjoying a marvellous season and have also enjoyed success with their other runners Quinte du Chatelet and Shaking Hands. Of their colours, Garth said "I have always been told I had gaudy taste, but I chose the colours so I could see them when I got old!" Anyway, Johnny Farrelly was very good aboard both of our winners and he needs only two more successes to ride out his claim. He says that when he has done that he will retire - I think he was joking! It was a very good weekend for subscribers to our text tipping service who were pointed in the direction of Notus de la Tour (7/2) and Master Overseer (9/2) - to subscribe, simply text PIPE to 84010 (texts cost £1.50 per message, to unsubscribe text PIPE STOP to 84010, helpline 01884 840715)
Yesterday's two winners were both offered
for sale recently - Master Overseer has now won over £22,000 in the two
runs since his
purchase and Notus de la Tour looks sure to add to his winnings from
Plumpton. Our "For Sale" page is dedicated to horses that we have
for offer, and is updated as we get we get new stock in. If you
are interested in buying a horse, please call our office on (01884)
840715 and we would be happy to find a horse to fill your requirements.
Weekend Jottings MCP and David have been busy over the weekend again. They have been working through the night in the tractor keeping the all weather gallops usable. It has been very cold down here lately and we have also had a light covering of snow - the roads are very slippery and icy - do take care! ***** I always enjoy looking through the wit and wisdom section of the Racing Post. There was a particularly good one yesterday: "Look at the power and movement and muscle. It reminds me of me in bed!" (Terry Biddlecombe admiring the statue of Best Mate at Cheltenham). It would be interesting to know what Hen made of that statement! The Post also reflected back on the seller at Stratford from 1998. Someone bid 44,000 guineas for the winner, Janglyneve before disappearing without paying. I think that if I was the auctioneer I would have been a little suspicious. I don't know how the fella was able to raise his arm to bid - he must have been wearing a straight jacket! ***** Finally, I would just like to say a very Happy Birthday to Gail Harrison. Gail is one of the secretaries in the office and has been here nearly as long as I have! Gail is very much a part of the furniture here and I know she will be thrilled to get a mention today, I am just gutted that we do not have a suitable picture of her to post! Many happy returns Gail! 3rd Dec '10
Seven Beats The
Freeze! It is a really cold and frosty morning in the Westcountry this morning with temperatures down at about -5°c. Sandown have not had it quite so bad and will have another look at the course at 10.00am this morning before deciding whether racing can go ahead. It was great to see Seven Is My Number score at Cheltenham yesterday. Due to the ground there were four non-runners, which left us with only Pigeon Island to beat, but he put in a great round of jumping to land this £18,000 prize. He has won five of his six starts this season and David has done extremely well with him.
While I was watching yesterday's racing from Southwell, I saw something that I had never seen before. Tony Culhane broke his whip in half! I don't know if it was anything to do with the extreme cold making the stick brittle or whether it was just the force with which he was using it (!), but he had to ride a finishing just flapping his reins about. He finished second, and but for that incident I think he would have won. 2nd Jan '10
16/1 Winner Thursday - What A Way To Finish
2009!
Flat, Hurdle & Chase Winner! What a good day for the yard yesterday with a brilliant treble which included a flat, hurdle and chase winner! Our four year old Shannersburg won the seller at Lingfield by five lengths under Chris Catlin. It was a lively auction after the race and David managed to buy Shannersburg back in for 7,200 guineas. The second placed favourite Ghufa was claimed by Jeff Pearce.
AP was in brilliant form at Warwick. On Leo's Lucky Star he held up him up and produced a brilliant turn of foot two out and won by six lengths. The form of the race looks pretty good and it was great our gelding went on the ground as owner Roger Brookhouse said he would. AP made all on Prince Geeno and he won by 13 lengths. The application of blinkers and a tongue strap seemed to do the trick and AP also rode a 10/1 winner for Jonjo O'Neill, so what a treble for him!
Racing at Exeter today has unfortunately been abandoned due to a frozen track. Temperatures got down to minus 4.5 last night and they called the meeting off first thing this morning. It is such a shame as we were due to have six runners down there today but instead we will concentrate solely on Cheltenham. The track does have to pass a 10am inspection but they are pretty hopeful of racing and we have six runners, check back here tomorrow for news of how they all got on. Happy New Year to you all and have a nice day! 1st Jan '10
Remembering the Baron! I see that it is Bob Wheatley's 68th birthday today. Bob was the owner of Baron Blakeney, who was Martin's first big winner (1981 Triumph Hurdle)- funnily enough, I was watching a video of that race only a few days ago (and no, it wasn't the last winner that I backed!). Paul Leach lost his stick on the run-in and had to slap the Baron down the neck with his reins. I shrewdly backed him at 50/1 - typically his returned S.P. was 66/1! How times have changed...I would love to back a 50/1 winner these days. Anyway, many happy returns Bob! ***** If you take the Racing Post, I can help you with the fun quiz on page 11. Question three asks: which former champion table tennis player is assistant to David Pipe? In case you were wondering, the answer is me - that's one of the easier one's that has been in there lately! Anyway, that just leaves me to wish you all a happy and very prosperous New Year. ***** We were galloping on the old grass gallops this morning and as you can see from the pictures, the ground was perfectly fine. Exeter is only twenty minutes away from us, so let's hope that the meeting can pass it's 2.00pm inspection this afternoon. If previous form is a reliable guide, they will probably hold a further inspection tomorrow morning. 31st Dec
A Look Back! Something very unusual happened at Newbury yesterday. Lough Derg fell over hurdles for the first time in his career in the race eventually won by Big Buck's. I am sure that many of you will be pleased to hear that "Douglas" is okay following his tumble. For a few strides turning in yesterday it looked as though Big Buck's might be in a bit of trouble, but the further he goes, the better he looks and he was well in command by the finish. The trouble is that trainers are starting to avoid running their horses against this one - I see that Nick Williams is contemplating sending Diamond Harry over fences as he doesn't believe he can beat Big Buck's. You should never be frightened of one horse - I cannot remember who said that originally, but I have to agree with the sentiment...otherwise you might as well just gift the World Hurdle to Big Buck's now! ***** It was good to see Sam Thomas ride a big winner in the rescheduled Lexus Chase at Leopardstown yesterday. He landed the feature race aboard the Alex Ferguson owned What A Friend. As far as I am concerned, as with all sports, success comes with confidence and you need the big wins to keep your confidence up - Sam didn't just become a bad jockey overnight, and some high profile success will do him no harm whatsoever. ***** While I am never pleased to see the loss of a race meeting, I nevertheless commend Haydock for at least calling their meeting off in good time. They were forced to abandon their last meeting half an hour before racing was due to commence and that cannot be allowed to happen again. I have long since lobbied for an independent adjudicator to decide if racing is possible, rather than the racecourses who have their own agenda's. 30th Dec '09
Common Sense Prevails! It's amazing how quickly the Irish can rearrange a fixture. After yesterday's feature race, the Lexus Chase was called off due to fog, they have rescheduled the big race to today. It seems like a simple exercise to me (afterall, there is no time like the present) - it just makes me wonder how long it would have taken us to come up with a solution on this side of the Irish Sea? We would need to set up a committee to select a committee to see if we could run the race this season, let alone the next day! Furthermore, they have reduced the admission from €25 to €15 - good on you, I hope today's meeting is a huge success. ***** During the freeze up over the last week or two we have had some pretty treacherous driving conditions. The other day David was going up and down the gallops in the middle of the night, when a man came running across the gallops waving his arms. It was the driver of the gritter lorry, and he had managed to go off road and put his vehicle in the ditch...someone should have sent out a gritter lorry for the gritter lorry! Anyway, David did his good deed for the day by towing him out with the tractor. 29th Dec '09
Now that's how to sell a horse! It's good to see that MCP has not lost his touch! Below you will see a picture of his sales technique - he is literally twisting Robert's arm to buy a horse in the bar after racing. Subtlety and smooth talking always works! 28th Dec '09
Festive
Successes! The stables runners continue in good form with Ronaldo des Mottes scoring with a bit in hand at Kempton yesterday. In fact, he won by five lengths under Timmy Murphy - let's just hope that the handicapper is not too hard on our four year old (he already has a mark of 131). Well Chief also put up a commendable effort in the Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton when finishing runner-up to Petit Robin, while Piraya also picked up some place money at the same meeting. We also enjoyed a nice winner at Wincanton on Boxing Day when Geordieland's half-sister Sure Josie Sure ran out a game winner of the mares' novices' hurdle. Despite losing all momentum and the lead with a mistake at the last, she fought back bravely to win going away. She looks to be a very nice prospect. 28th Dec '09
Welsh Grand National Let's keep our fingers crossed that the Welsh National goes ahead tomorrow. It was quite mild down in Devon yesterday with temperatures even reaching 10 degrees on Saturday. I can remember being stuck in a traffic jam on the Severn bridge going to Chepstow one year, in fact most years! We got out of the car one time and ran over the bridge. With Mcp's bad knee, I was quite a bit quicker than him and left him well behind until the traffic cleared a bit and he came sailing past me on the back of a lorry! I have great memories of this famous race over the years especially when MCP won the race with Bonanza Boy and Carvills Hill. It seems that everybody loves going to Chepstow tomorrow so make sure you allow yourself plenty of time because the roads will be busy! There is some great jumping action today from Kempton again. Well Chief will be back on the track in the 2.40pm race so fingers crossed for him and the rest of our team includes Woodlark Island, Piraya, Royal Rationale and Ronaldo Des Mottes. check back here tomorrow for news of how all our weekend runners got on. 27th Dec '09
We Have Racing! It is great news this morning that the tracks we have runners at today, Kempton and Wincanton both go ahead after beating the recent weather. It is great credit to both courses that they have worked so hard to ensure racing goes ahead so there will be some nice action on the television this afternoon. David does have a non-runner today. Star of Angels does not run in the 3.25pm at Wincanton. It was a lovely morning at Pond House yesterday and MCP took a few snaps of our horses on the gallops with our staff wearing their Christmas hats! We do hope you all enjoyed a lovely Christmas day and are not all turkeyed out!
I was watching the interview with Henry Cecil the other day called Legends. At first I was a bit surprised they let Matt Chapman do the interview but it was actually very good. Myself and MCP stayed at Warren Place as guests of Henry a few years ago and it was a brilliant weekend. Henry even did all the cooking himself, mind you, his dog ran off with one of the Quails he was going to cook! When the three of us sat down for dinner we bombarded him with questions and if you could have had a camera there then it would have made brilliant viewing! Although I guess he may not have been so keen and open with his answers to our questions. Warren Place has a magnificent house and I stayed in a room with thousands of dancing girls! I mean they were models of dancers! When we walked around the yard the names of all the group winners he had trained were on the stable doors and as you can imagine some of the doors were full up! I have a picture of Henry, MCP, A P McCoy & myself holding trophies for English and French Derby's and it has pride of place on my wall at home. Henry Cecil is a true legend! 26th Dec '09
King George
Quiz (Part 2)! Well, Happy Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a lovely day, and a very prosperous 2010. Racing resumes tomorrow with the King George at Kempton the obvious highlight. We have two intended runners (weather permitting), Hennessy winner Madison du Berlais and Cheltenham Festival winner and former King George runner-up Our Vic. Anyway, onto part 2 of our King George trivia quiz:
Again, for those who want to be named or shamed for their racing knowledge (or lack of!), please feel free to e-mail us your answers to: david@davidpipe.co.uk - answers will be revealed at the beginning of next week. King George Quiz!
It's nearly Christmas, so I thought we would have another of our little fun quizzes, this time about Kempton's Boxing Day feature, The King George VI Chase. The answers for part one will appear here in the early part of next week, while we will have a second part on Christmas Day. Hopefully, the weather will ease up a little and the meeting will go ahead. It is certainly treacherous on the roads around here today as we had quite a lot of rain yesterday, promptly followed by a frost overnight. Needless to say, most of the roads closely resemble skating rinks this morning! Anyway, on with the quiz:
Good luck! Remember, this is only a fun quiz, but if you want to show off your racing knowledge, feel free to e-mail us your answers and we will list the top scores in the early part of next week That just leaves us to wish you all a Merry Christmas from everyone at Pond House. 24th Dec '09
Latest From
The Gallops! When I was coming down the road next to our all weather gallops at 6.00am this morning, all you could see was the headlights on our two tractors going up and down the gallops to keep them workable. I see in Lambourn they call it the graveyard shift - we have had David and MCP working the gallops in the tractor until midnight and then Mike, our number one tractor driver the remainder of the evening. David has been taking flasks of coffee down for him, but knowing Mike he would probably have preferred a few bottles of cider - anyway, thanks to our intrepid gallops men, we are able to gallop at the normal time this morning. ***** Looking through the Racing Post's jump horses of the decade, I notice that they have included Gloria Victis. While I may be a little biased, I think that I would have put him a bit higher up the list - I still remember his outstanding performance in the Racing Post Chase at Kempton when as a novice he gave 15lbs and a ten length beating to the top-class Marlborough. A P McCoy, who was twice successful aboard him, recently said "To this day I don't think I've had the same feel from another horse. I've definitely never ridden a novice chaser like it, he could jump and go fast." A P has ridden a few good horses in his time, and that will do for me! I was interested to see yesterday's compilation of the top flat horses - with all the speculation that has surrounded Sea The Stars (could he be the greatest ever?!), I was a little surprised that he wasn't even rated best of the decade! Having said that, their number one selection, Dubai Millennium was also a very special racehorse - his performance when landing the Dubai World Cup by six lengths was a performance that I will remember for a long time. 23rd Dec '09
The Frosts
Continue! The cold snap continues at Pond House, and the temperature was a chilly -5°c as I came off of the motorway this morning. The roads were very slippery and Jonothan will have to salt the roads again this morning in order that our horses can get to the all weather gallops. Today is the last day of racing until the big Boxing Day fixtures. There are due to be seven meetings on that day, but the way things are at present, I wouldn't fancy the chances of all seven taking place. We need some warmer weather for that to happen, and it certainly isn't looking too promising at present. I was very (pleasantly) surprised to see Ffos Las go ahead yesterday - I didn't realise that it is quite so close to the sea. I live near the sea in Brixham and it is never as cold next to the coast as it is here at Pond House - there's a tip for anyone looking to build a racecourse in the future - make sure it is near a beach somewhere! ***** There is a great picture of Well Chief jumping on page 3 of today's Racing Post - I think the photographer must have actually been lying in the open ditch to take that shot! It's close enough for me when I am taking pictures from the other side of the rails! ***** Finally, I would just like to mention a couple of notable birthday's. Best wishes to Peter Hedger, who is 70 today. I still remember him from my table tennis days at Warner's holiday camp on Hayling Island. Peter has just started training again.
Also many happy returns to Angela Edwards
who celebrates her 50th birthday today. Angela is wife of local
permit holder Gordon Edwards and mother of Gemma who works in our
office, and also Darren who rode Maximize to a Cheltenham Festival
success for us. Best wishes from David, Martin, myself and the
whole team at Pond House.
Ffos Las
Goes Ahead! I was very surprised to hear that Ffos Las has passed it's 8am inspection this morning and racing will go ahead. I was watching the racing from Haydock on Saturday afternoon when one of the television cameras panned in on A P McCoy standing on top of one of the fences. I couldn't resist phoning him and he was surprised to hear that I could see him - it just goes to show...you never know who is looking! Surely it is about time that someone from the Jockey Club is appointed to decide if these race meetings can go ahead. I get the impression that some of the clerks of the courses are under pressure from their bosses, be they directors or racecourse owners to give racing every chance of going ahead. A friend of mine in the Haydock area tells me that it did not get above zero all day and that there was never any prospect of racing going ahead, indeed, many of the jockeys were on their phones telling the trainers that the ground was unraceable and to withdraw their horses. All it means is further expense for the poor owners (and it doesn't present a good image to those first-time racegoers who actually arrive at the course before the meeting is abandoned). ***** I was pleased to hear that the Long Walk Hurdle that was originally scheduled to take place at Ascot at the weekend has been salvaged and will instead be run at Newbury on 29th December. It will be a very different test to that originally intended - Ascot is a right-handed undulating course, while Newbury is flat and left-handed. Having said that, they are both held on grass, and both courses are a complete nightmare to get out of after racing, so there are some similarities! 21st Dec '09
***Horse For
Sale*** We are pleased to offer for sale this exciting three year old filly by leading French sire Kapgarde, out of a winning Cyborg mare. She is unraced although she has been well schooled at home and jumps very well indeed - you can find out more about her on our horses for sale page. She is for sale for £20,000 and if you are interested in purchasing her or would like any further information, you should log your interest with our office on (01884) 840715, but be quick, as you will notice from our horses for sale page that our stock is selling very quickly.
Snow Good! Even if you could cover the entire track to stop the frost getting into the ground, there is no guarantee that you would be able to race - just look at Haydock yesterday. If you then get heavy snow it becomes impossible to remove the covers - it's amazing...we can fly to the moon, but we can't remove snow covered sheets! When they build new racetracks would it not be possible to include an underground heating system like they do at some of the football grounds? I know that this means extra expense, but just imagine the savings that could be made long term by not having to cancel meetings and refund admission charges. If someone could come up with a feasible method to keep the tracks raceable even on the coldest days they could make a fortune...now there's a challenge for you! Prospects for the next few days don't look great - Carlisle is off today, while Kempton are inspecting. Let's hope for a thaw out! 19th Dec '09
Keeping Cool! The temperature reached -4°c on the way to the yard this morning - that is definitely the coldest so far this winter. I don't know what we would do without the all-weather gallops - mind you, you do have to put some work into keeping it in good shape. We have two tractors that go up and down to keep the surface as smooth as David likes it. If you move off of the artificial surface and onto the grass, the ground is like concrete and you certainly wouldn't be able to gallop on it. When the ground is frozen, we can bring the horses inside and school them over our fences in our loose school which is sand based, so as you can see, training goes on very much as normal. ***** MCP went to a King George VI Chase preview earlier in the week at a bar in Mayfair called Below Zero. Unusually for a bar, you had to put clothes on to go in! Below you will see a picture of MCP with Roger Stanley, owner of Madison du Berlais, who is due to take in the Boxing Day feature. One thing is for sure, I bet they didn't have to order more ice! From one bar to another, and some of our staff started celebrating Christmas early last night at the Blue Ball. They looked a sorry sight this morning I don't mind telling you. Gerry Supple tells me that he only went along to keep a watchful eye on the younger staff! 19th Dec '09
Competing
For Buttons! All eyes at the yard were on the 2.10pm race at Ludlow yesterday afternoon when Katy Squires had her first ride in public. She was riding her mother's horse Keyneema and she did nothing wrong in finishing fifth. Her mother's previous two runners had both won, so the yard is in good form - she has only got two horses! ***** I see that Paul and Nina Carberry are planning on making the most of their time on the sidelines when they plan to participate in the Golden Button Challenge (a race along the banks of the River Severn) on New Year's Eve. It is a three mile contest across countryside, hedges, ditches and timber jumps and the pair are looking for a couple of point to pointer's to ride in the race. Amazingly, flat jockey Eddie Ahern won the race in 2007 and will be competing again this year - that tells you all you need to know about flat jockeys really - barking mad the lot of them! Richard Dunwoody will be the official starter and I am pleased to see that having walked to the moon, the former champion jockey has come to his senses. The race will be shown on Channel 4 Racing during their New Year's day programme. 18th Dec '09
Keyne For A
Winner! One of our stable girls has her first ride under rules this afternoon at Ludlow. She is in the 2.10pm race and the seven year old she rides has been in good form lately, having won last week at Hereford. Keyneema is only a 7/2 chance according to the Racing Post, so it is a good first ride for Miss Katy Squires - I am told there will be standing room only in the hostel when the race is on, and I hope that everything goes well and she gets a good ride. ***** From a jockey looking for her first winner under rules, we should congratulate Richard Johnson following his amazing 2000th success at Newbury yesterday. As only the second jockey ever to ride that many winners, it is incredible that he has never been champion jockey, indeed, he is well on his way to finishing runner-up in the championship for a twelfth time this season! It's a shame for him that he has ridden in the same era as A P McCoy, as his achievements have perhaps to some extent gone unrecognised. Nevertheless, I firmly believe that we are in a golden age of jump jockeys and we are privileged to witness the likes of McCoy, Johnson, Walsh, Geraghty et al. 17th Dec '09
Folkestone
Frozen! Folkestone was abandoned just twenty minutes before the scheduled off time of the first race yesterday afternoon. The track was frozen and the clerk of the course said, "at 9am it looked as if the sun was going to break through as forecast, but the cloud cover persisted and temperatures did not rise." As I have said on more than one occasion, something has to be done about the late abandonment of these meetings - I think personally, the courses should be made to pay the expenses for all the horses travelling to the courses. Money is tight nowadays, and it is inevitably the owners that have to foot the bill in such instance - at a time when many of them are getting out due to the cost, they don't need another kick up the backside like this. Make the courses pay and we will see how late they leave it before abandoning a meeting next time! Let's be honest, with the current levels of racing that we have in this country, does it really matter if we lose the odd meeting here or there? If we had a cut-off time of 10am for instance, I think that would put an end to all of this will they, won't they nonsense. Does anyone else have any better ideas? 16th Dec '09
Happy
Birthday Mate! I see that it's former Australian jump jockey Jamie Evans' 41st birthday today. Now there was a tricky Aussie - he pulled more strokes than Mark Spitz! He was best remembered in this country for his Cheltenham Festival victory aboard Big Strand, coming from 13th on the home turn to get up on the line to win the Coral Cup. Jamie had a whip action like a windmill in a storm! I have an archive full of Jamie Evans' stories and will recount one of the few that can be published: Jamie had just returned to Australia (or was he deported?) - shortly afterwards I received a letter from Qantas airlines stating that I owed them money. Apparently Evans had upgraded his flight and told the airline that his racing manager would sort out the bill - it seems that unbeknown to me, he had promoted me to his racing manager! As you can imagine the letter soon received the "not known at this address" treatment. Anyway, many happy returns mate! 15th Dec '09
Racing
Coverage! What chance of A P McCoy ever winning BBC Sports Personality of the Year? We can't even have a full racing service on teletext any more! Teletext was on our televisions for seventeen years and it's demise has been blamed on the internet (although it has been an invaluable tool to keep up to date for those without access to the internet). It seems to me that to receive any decent coverage of sport - the directors and bigwigs at the television stations need to like the sport first! I am sure that it is only a matter of time before ladies mud wrestling to take over from horse racing! Sadly, racing needs television more than television needs racing, but it is not only that form of media that we rely on - we also need coverage in the newspapers. All of the cards should be printed in their publications, but all too often there are meetings missing, and the race titles omitted. It doesn't sound that important, but without the race titles in the paper, the firms that generously sponsor these races are losing valuable advertising. Afterall, what is the point in stumping up to sponsor a race if you aren't getting any coverage? It is a problem that I can see only getting worse. ***** You may remember a few weeks ago I was talking about good Christmas presents, well following the weekend, I have another good idea...how about a sat nav?! 14th Dec '09
Sunday
Jottings David has two runners at Hereford this afternoon with Tom Scu riding both. Shaking Hands is looking to follow up his recent win at Uttoxeter in the handicap chase and Grands Crus is only making is second ever start in the closing Bumper. Both horses seem in fine form at home and fingers crossed they both should run well. Just continuing from what I wrote about Ruby Walsh remounting his horse at Cheltenham on Friday, I believe that if you are a point to point horse you can be remounted after a fall?! What is the difference between point to point horses and National Hunt horses? Surely there is no difference, so why do we not have the same set of rules, can anyone tell me? I think that this is an area that needs to be looked into as it seems totally ridiculous to me. I see from the Racing post yesterday that Andrew Thornton's favourite holiday destination is Saunton Sands hotel in North Devon. I must say that it is a very good hotel and has an even better golf course. In fact two golf courses and just down the road from there, there is another brilliant golf course, the Royal North Devon. This course in fact is the oldest links course in England, so there is a bit of knowledge for any quizzes coming up! 13th Dec '09
Perfect Package It was a good performance from The Package at Cheltenham yesterday. Our six year old jumped particularly well and Timmy was looking around from a long way out. Now that he settles better he saw out the 3m1½f trip very well. They were talking about the Grand National for him on the television, but remember he is only a six year old to there is plenty of time to think about that race. He picked up £28,505 for winning yesterday and it was a great day all round. David flew up to Cheltenham but had to fly straight back again! It was too foggy to land the helicopter so they had to come home and watch the action on the television. I am sure the champagne came out after The Package won. I am only guessing but if anyone wants to give me odds against?!
Garde Champetre won again yesterday in the cross country chase. He is quite a remarkable horse having won five times in six runs over the course. It was a great performance carrying 11st 12lb on his back. His trainer Enda Bolger said he thinks he has got another three or four years left in him to run in those type of races. I think you should leave a standing order with your bookie, Garde Champtere in all the cross country races! There was a bit of controversy yesterday when Ruby Walsh remounted his horse Earth planet after he fell at Cheltenham. This of course is not allowed under new rules but he did not remount to continue ion the race, he was simply coming back to the stables. The stewards looked into this incident but thankfully common sense prevailed and they did not ban him for remounting. The Pipeline found two winners yesterday at 6/1 and 5/1 and that makes it 15 so far this week at some good prices, 7/1,6/1,5/1, 7/2. 3/1, 11/4, 11/4. To listen to today's tips phone 0900 3900 900 (calls cost 60p per min). 12th Dec '09
Cheltenham
is Back I hope you are all receiving my text tip straight to your mobile. We had three winners yesterday including one at 5/2! We are doing well this month and are showing a good profit to a £1 stake, see details above on how to subscribe to our service. There was a claimer at Ludlow yesterday that I was watching and three of the runners were claimed after the race. The horses that finished second and third were claimed for £8,000 and £6,000 while the horse that finished 5th, Marino Prince was also claimed for £8,000. I think it was strange as the winner, Empty Sky won very nicely and yet there were no claims for this one. I always follow these type of races and I shall be looking out for Marino Prince from now on as I cannot see why it was claimed. It went off for yesterdays race at 50/1 so it was not like it was well fancied either. Probably the best horse ever claimed was Make a Stand which we got out of a race at Leicester. There is still an ongoing dispute over this horse as to who actually claimed him, me or MCP! Remember, Stanley went on to win the Champion hurdle. I don't think that this will ever happen again with one from a claimer. Racing is back at Cheltenham today and we have three runners. The Package kicks off our runners and after finishing a good third last time out at Wincanton we are hoping he runs to a similar level of form today. Whimper makes his Pond House debut in the conditional jockeys chase with Hadden Frost on board. Our four year old won over fences at Auteuil last time out and he is pictured below schooling earlier in the week. Buena Vista is our third runner of the day in the 3 mile handicap hurdle and he ran well at Haydock last time. I hope you are able to watch the upcoming action at Cheltenham today and tomorrow as there are some great races coming up, enjoy! 11th Dec '09
Trainers Championship I see that in the British jump trainers championship today in the Racing Post, David has moved into third place in the table which is good as the horses seem to be running well at the moment. Mind you, the trainer with the best horses wins the most prize money an if it was like the jockeys championship, Jonjo O'Neill would be on top with 71 winners and Tim Vaughn would be on second with 69. If you had a £1 on everyone of David's runners this season you would be in for a profit of £61.24 and of the 80 trainers that are in the list, David is top on profit. In the jockeys championship AP is top on numbers and prize money having ridden 136 winners.. Ruby Walsh has only ridden 27 winners over here but is only £200,00 behind AP in prize money. I still maintain that the jump trainers championship should be decided by number of winners trained and not on prize money. Somehow tipping lines have got hold of my wife's name and we keep getting letters through the post telling her how much money they are making! I phoned one of them up and asked them if they had any proof of their selections. I have to let the Racing post know of my selections but as you can probably guess a lot of these tipping services do not have any regulations. It seems that most of the letters come from the Sussex area so you have been warned, if it seems to good to be true it probably is! 10th Dec '09 British Racing The Cleanest MCP visited the Newmarket Equine
Hospital yesterday to attend a "medication control in racehorses"
seminar. The day was chaired by David Dugdale and following an
introduction by the Chief Executive of the National Trainers Federation,
Rupert Arnold, there were a number of guest speakers including: Their facts and figures are very interesting - British horse racing is the cleanest in the world. Of 10,000 routine tests every year, revealed one positive for doping. A further twenty were found to contain medication breaches. This was the first meeting of it's kind and it was a very interesting event, with many good ideas and all for the benefit of the trainers and the horses in their care. It was a great learning experience. 9th Dec '09
Kinane Calls
It A Day I see that at the age of 50, Mick Kinane has decided to retire from race riding, and who can blame him for wanting to bow out at the top? Last season's partnership with Sea The Stars really put the icing on the cake of a wonderful career. Mick's dad Tommy paid us a visit not too long ago and we managed to get him aboard our mechanical horse. All I will say is, it is a good job that Mick didn't inherit his dad's style (I'm only joking Tommy! For those of you that aren't aware, Tommy was a very proficient jump jockey who won the Champion Hurdle aboard Monksfield). I don't know Mick but he has always come across as very professional and as a top class jockey, who won no fewer than 13 championships. He ranks right up there amongst the modern greats such as Fallon and Dettori. Here's one thing I bet you didn't know however, Mick has already bred a Derby winner (Authorized) - that sounds like a good question for a pub quiz. Anyway the difference between a good jockey and a great jockey is the number of mistakes they make - during his 34 year career, Mick made very few mistakes. I am sure that he has done the right thing calling it a day now, I hope he enjoys his well earned retirement - who knows he may even breed another Derby winner?! 9th Dec '09
Winners
Galore! Followers of the Pipeline are enjoying a real purple patch heading into the festive period. Yesterday's listeners were pointed in the direction of FIVE WINNERS from FIVE SELECTIONS at odds of 7/2, 11/4, 2/1, 5/4 and 4/5 so the lucky pin is clearly still working! To benefit from our expert knowledge simply call 0900 3900 900 from 8am (calls charged at 60p per min at all times, Helpline 01884 840715) - ours is the cheapest premium rate service around. ***** It's a shame that the first two races at Fontwell have only attracted nine runners. Both races have long odds-on favourites, and in the beginners' chase if you were to jump round and finish last you would still pick up £351! I wonder why trainers have not entered their horses in these races? Not only is it a shame for the racecourse, but also for the race goers. Afterall, most of them like to have a little flutter when they are at the races, but with the first two favourites forecast to start at the prohibitive odds of 1/3 and 4/9, they might find it a little tricky. ***** I see that over in America trainer Steve Asmussen has just won his 623rd race of the year, breaking his own world record in the process (he has won over $153,000,000 during his career). I wonder how many horses he has in training? Just imagine sending out over 50 winners per month! 8th Dec '09
Vic-torious! What a great performance from Our Vic at Warwick yesterday afternoon when he won the £25,000 conditions' chase. He is a real favourite in the yard and is ridden in all his work by our head lad Eddie Buckley - he told me that the horse was well and he was proved 100% correct. Our Vic must have thought that he was running loose with only 10-12 on his back - it wasn't all plain sailing however, as Vic had to show real guts and determination to get his head back in front after he had been headed. This was another great training performance from David and it was great to see this evergreen eleven year old in the winners' enclosure again. Marcelle used to be one of our secretaries at Pond House and she knew of the result before she walked down the isle to get married yesterday. She was off on a winning note! (See more details and a photo below). The yard enjoyed a double when Roger Brookhouse's nice new recruit Chartreux won the bumper in good style. He simply galloped the opposition into the ground and he certainly looks like a useful addition to the yard - I am already looking forward to seeing him over hurdles and a longer trip. This was another nice winner for Hadden Frost, who scored upon Master Overseer at Wincanton on Thursday.
***** It was one of our former secretaries wedding yesterday. Marcelle was married to Nick Connor, a pilot for Virgin Atlantic - you know, the airline that doesn't go all the way! Anyway, it was a lovely day - the only sad part was the cake...it was in tiers! I managed to get a nice picture of the happy couple signing the register, they are now off on honeymoon to Barbados.
***** I hope that you followed the Pipeline over the weekend as we had a very good time of it. Indeed, if you subscribe to our text service, you will have been pointed in the direction of Our Vic and Chartreux who won at 3/1 and 7/1 respectively. To subscribe, simply text PIPE to 84010 (texts cost £1.50 per message - to unsubscribe text PIPE STOP to 84010). 7th Dec '09
Tommo
True To Form! I just have to recount the tale of a luncheon that myself and MCP attended at the beginning of the week at the Thistle Hotel in Bristol. It was a sportsman's dinner held in association with Talksport radio and Derek Thompson was acting as master of ceremonies. When we arrived we were met by Tommo ("the big fella") in reception. Much to our astonishment he told us to give our parking ticket to the receptionist before we left and to put any charges on his account. Talk about surprise...we knew that Tommo had been unwell lately, but it appeared to be more serious than we had first thought - he used to think it was a crime to break into a fiver! You can imagine how concerned we were therefore when Derek even offered to get a round of drinks in. We needn't have worried of course...we later discovered that it was a free bar and when we came to leave, Tommo had already checked out so we had to pay to get out. Some things never change! ***** As I am sure you have seen from the top of this page, David has purchased a nice three year old from France called Notus de la Tour. He has won his only race on the flat, and won his last start over hurdles by an easy 20 lengths (beating previous winners). He could be useful and £27,000 will buy him - he is fit, well and ready to run...be quick though as there is plenty of interest. 6th Dec '09
Seven
Records Fourth Win Of Season! I thought that Seven Is My Number put up a good performance at Sandown yesterday afternoon. He was entitled to go close at the weights, but he jumped extremely well and stayed on really well up the hill at the end of this 3m1/2f contest. There may be question marks over whether the placed horses stayed the trip, but Seven Is My Number was very impressive and won fairly and squarely. I was trying to watch the coverage from Exeter yesterday afternoon but the visibility became so bad that they eventually abandoned the meeting after the 2.45pm race. I do enjoy listening to the commentators when conditions are like that -"They are over there somewhere, they should be turning into the straight (I think...)." The fog can close in really quickly on the top of Haldon Hill, although visibility wasn't great before racing began. 5th Dec '09
Another
Brocade Brace! The stable's rich vein of form continues and we enjoyed another double yesterday courtesy of Master Overseer at Wincanton and Quinte du Chatelet at Leicester. It was the second double that owners Anne & Garth Broom and Brocade Racing have enjoyed in the last week! I was pleased to see Hadden Frost enjoy a nice winner aboard Master Overseer - he gave this dour stayer a good ride. The heavy ground and extreme trip seems to have brought about plenty of improvement - the further he goes the better he seems to travel. The first prize money (a shade under £10,000) was also very good for the grade. Tom Scu gave Quinte du Chatelet an excellent ride as he supplemented last week's win with a gutsy front running performance. He won over an extra 3/4 mile last time out so we knew that he would stay and so Tom made it a true test of stamina. He was entitled to win as he was officially 6lbs ahead of the handicapper, who is sure to make things more difficult now - a step back up in trip may be on the cards. The remainder of the horses ran well too with two seconds and three thirds - indeed, all seven of our runners managed to reach the frame - in the process moving David up to third place in the trainers' table.
Remembering The Life Of Joseph Coate Today, we remember with fondness Joseph Coate, whose life was tragically cut short in a road accident four years ago. Joseph was a lovely lad - one of life's nice guys and a valued member of the team here at Pond House. During his all too brief time with us he had established himself as a talented rider and conscientious worker, but above all a good friend. Joseph's pride and joy was Well Chief, who he looked after, and I am sure that he would be very proud of "Chiefy's" subsequent achievements. Joseph was just seventeen when he died - a tragic and untimely end to such a promising life. He will remain in our thoughts, as will his family on this very sad day. 3rd Dec '09
School
Report! I was looking at the betting for the Champion Hurdle and was very surprised that Binocular is still favourite among most firms at odds of around 5/1. I thought that he ran a stinker in the Fighting Fifth at Newcastle at the weekend - even though the race would not have been run to suit, he still looked beaten too far out for me to be entirely comfortable with. Having said that, Nicky Henderson claimed he was lifeless coming out of his box a couple of days later, so there could have been something amiss. There could be a new order at his yard, as I thought that Zaynar was very impressive the weekend before at Ascot, despite apparently needing the run. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Binocular was a drifter in the ante-post markets before he runs again. ***** I notice that some of the bookies have priced up the Order Of Merit - most of the firms make Big Buck's their 7/4 favourite, although Paddy Power make him a standout 3/1 chance - do they know something, or have they just made an error? ***** Epee Celeste has her first run for the yard at Leicester this afternoon, and our ex-French filly who won easily at Auteuil on her last start went through her final piece of work yesterday and jumped a few hurdles under Danny Cook. Danny was also aboard Dream Esteem and as you can see, they both schooled very nicely. 3rd Dec '09
***Plumpton Abandoned This Afternoon*** Following a further ten millimetres of rain last night, Plumpton have been forced to abandon their card this afternoon. Latest From The Gallops! We schooled a few over fences this morning and pictured below are Sona Sasta, partnered by Hadden Frost, and Good Man Jack, ridden by Danny Cook. They jumped plain fences and open ditches and I must say that they jumped very well.
Bristol
Bash! I went to Bristol with MCP yesterday for a sportsman's fund raising lunch at the Thistle Hotel. The quiz master was Channel 4 Racing's Derek Thompson and the team captains were Talksport's Ronnie Irani and Alan Brazil. There were over 150 Bristol businessmen in attendance and "The Big Fellow" Tommo was very good at ensuring the event ran smoothly. There was a true or false round - how would you have fared?
It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon, and Tommo even got a round of drinks in, so the stories about him being so tight that he squeaks are unfounded! Actually, thinking about it, it was a free bar yesterday... By the way the answers to the true or false: surprisingly, true, false and true. 2nd Dec '09
Sports
Personality Farce! How can it be that A P McCoy has not been included in the top ten nominations for BBC Sports Personality of the Year? I conducted my own poll in my home town of Brixham and asked a number of people if they knew the sports person and their sport. Most of them knew who favourite Jenson Button was, while everyone knew Man Utd footballer Ryan Giggs and Tom Daley (a diver and a local lad to boot). Most knew Andy Murray and boxer David Haye, whilst some knew England cricket captain Andrew Strauss. A couple of people even knew of Beth Tweddle (although a couple of people also thought that she was in the pantomime Cinderella in Torquay!), whilst no-one had ever heard of Mark Cavendish, Jessica Ennis. In fact, of all of the people I asked, they had never heard of four of the ten nominees! I also asked each of them who A P McCoy was, and they all knew without exception. One lady even said, "you mean A P!". The list was compiled by the sports editors of twenty six newspapers and magazines - personally, I think they should have a close look at their final ten, or better still, maybe some of the owners of these publications should take a look at their sports editors. Afterall, racing may not be as popular as the likes of football, but if these sports editors are worth their salt they should have a broad general knowledge of most sports, and they should know that McCoy has dominated his rivals unlike any other current sportsman. It might just be me or am I missing the point of this ceremony? I for one, will not be watching. 1st Dec '09 |
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