Scu Successful On Sivola!

We opened the doors to Pond House again yesterday for the second and final Garden Party of 2011 for owners and friends of the yard.  Around 150 people joined us for an informal tour of the establishment where they could catch up with old friends human and equine before enjoying drinks and a bite to eat.  Fortunately the weather was kind to us and we experienced a warm, sunny summer afternoon as you can see from the photographs below.

  

Connections with exciting bumper winner African Broadway at Sunday's Garden Party

Tom Scudamore joined us once again following his return to the saddle at Market Rasen on Saturday.  It was great that we were able to provide him with a winner on his comeback ride as Taratata Sivola won the novices’ chase in determined fashion.  Tom showed no sign of rustiness as he needed to keep his mount up to his work in the closing stages, and the work that he has done in keeping fit despite his spell on the sidelines clearly paid rich dividends.  Below are some great pictures taken by Francesca Altoft a budding, young photographer who was at the meeting - I am sure you will agree that they are very good, and my thanks to her for letting us use them here.

  
Taratata Sivola is a welcome comeback winner at Market Rasen on Saturday for Tom Scudamore
Photographs reproduced by kind permission of Francesca Altoft 

Tom had been on the sick list for four months since sustaining a nasty shoulder injury that required open reconstructive surgery following a horrible fall from the David Bridgwater trained The Giant Bolster at Aintree’s Grand National meeting in April.  It was fantastic to have him back - it has certainly been a long four months without him, although I am sure that it seemed even longer to him, and probably an eternity to his poor, long suffering wife Lottie!

Talking of Taratata Sivola, he was one of a number of horses that we bought on a recent trip to the sales in France and as I mentioned at the time, I have been extremely pleased with our purchases.  Indeed, all of them have now found owners with the exception of Ladyvie.  She had shown plenty of promise over hurdles and fences in France and is still qualified for novice events under both codes.  She is fit and ready to run immediately and looks sure to give plenty of fun and enjoyment to any prospective owner.  Further details can be found on our horses for sale page.

It has been a good summer for young conditional jockey Conor O’Farrell who has come in for the baulk of the rides in Tom Scudamore’s absence.  Conor is excellent value for his 3lbs claim and has booted home twelve winners in this country as well as two more back in Ireland.  He is currently leading the way in the conditional jockey’s championship and we will do our very best to help him join the likes of Jonothan Lower, Martin Foster and Jamie Moore as Pond House based winners of this contest.

The majority of the horses are now back in from their summer holidays, looking big and well and I can’t wait to get cracking with them.   I took a few minutes out from our Owners’ Day yesterday to speak with Mike Vince regarding prospects for the season ahead; you can hear it by clicking below:.

The Master of Pond House looks ahead to the new season. Audio mp3 Interview

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Finally, I couldn’t leave this week without mentioning the new Betfair marketing campaign featuring the Ambassador’s Reception.  It stars a certain P F Nicholls in a spin-off of the old Ferrero Rocher advertisement – hopefully it might inspire the champion trainer to think about an alternative career in acting, although judging by this performance I don’t think he should be writing his acceptance speech to the Academy just yet!