- Monday, 14 April 2025 17:10
- Written by David Pipe
Chemical Warfare
Seven Time Winner This Season
Chemical Warfare was our 49th winner of the season when winning at Sedgefield on Friday evening and what a star he has been since joining us. In just under twelve months, he has now won seven of his fourteen starts, a 50% strike rate, and you could argue he is a little unlucky not to have at least one or two more wins beside his name, once when falling and once when finishing second and not having a lot of luck in running. His first win was from a mark of 75 at Market Rasen, while on Friday he was winning from a rating of 115 and this was for the third time at Sedgefield. His progression has been a joy to watch and he is a horse who wears his heart on his sleeve and always tries his best. While the Eider chase at Newcastle last time proved a little beyond him, he showed his resilience and bounce back capabilities in calmer waters. He is a horse who thrives on his work and routine, we tried to give him a little break during the winter but I am not sure enjoyed being off games that much!
He is versatile with regards to ground but does prefer a sounder surface and while life will be tougher again off a higher mark next time I wouldn’t be surprised to see him cope with any rise the handicapper gives him in the right race. The horses stayed the night at Sedgefield after racing and travelled home on Saturday morning before he spent the afternoon out in the paddock and he was fresh and well having a canter on Monday morning.
Pub Crawl could learn a lot from his friend Chemical Warfare and having travelled up to Sedgefield as well he finished fourth in his race. He couldn’t reproduce his best form to date on his return from a winter holiday but he will improve a little for the outing and he is more than capable of winning races if he puts his best foot forwards.
Phantomofthepoints ran well to be fourth at Ayr on ground that was livelier than ideal. He is now on his summer holiday. Jack and I travelled up to Ayr in the horsebox and we then dropped Phantom home after racing to owner Kenny Alexander’s stud. Phantomofthepoints was bred by Kenny out of our former very good mare, Swing Bowler and we have his half-sister here at Pond House who we will be looking to run in a bumper in the autumn. Jack and I enjoyed seeing the mares, foals and yearlings, all potential stars of the future including Honeysuckle’s offspring.
We also have more foal news a lot closer to home and on Saturday, former Pond House in-mate Lady Reset’s first foal arrived safely at Ashbrittle Stud. Her owners, Keith and Lynne Webb decided to retire her to stud and she now has a lovely colt foal by Golden Horn who was this year’s leading sire at the Cheltenham Festival. Lady Reset was a nine-time winner in her career, winning five races on the flat and four over hurdles so hopefully this little chap will turn into be a lovely dual purpose prospect in the future. Lady Reset had a terrific attitude and always tried her heart out in her races so if she has passed this on to her first-born we have lots to look forward to. Mother and baby are doing well; we plan to visit soon and will continue to give further updates.
This Week
Our first runner of the week is on the all-weather at Kempton on Tuesday evening, Ocean Heights and he runs in the concluding 1m4f handicap on the card. He has not been in the best form of late but ran more encouragingly last time at Southwell, the handicapper has given him some help and he returns to Kempton where he has won before. He is a big price but hopefully he can build on last time.
On Wednesday, we have three runners, American Sniper at Cheltenham and two at Ffos Las, an extra meeting that was put on with the abandonments of Taunton and Wincanton. It is a shame that these meetings were lost but having run out of water to irrigate the ground they were left with no choice and it was great the BHA were proactive and got these additional meetings on and on a course that generally has softer conditions than many. We run Shot Boii and River Run Free in the 3-mile handicap chase. Rain is forecast at the track and as long as we get it, I hope that both horses have good each way chances. Jack Tudor rides River Run Free while Fergus Gillard re-unites with Shot Boii. Fergus and ‘Shottie’ have combined to win three races in their careers so far so it is nice to have him back on board.
On Thursday, we just have the two entries, Belfrina at Cheltenham and Eton Mes at Ffos Las. Belfrina is unlikely to run unless Cheltenham do get any rain while Eton Mes could take his chance and make his Pond House debut in the bumper if conditions are right.
There is no jumps action on Friday, being it is Good Friday and they have the all-weather flat championship meetings. Punta Del Este has an entry at Plumpton on Sunday but keep checking the Daily News on the website for all the latest news on the stable runners.
Jockey Update
Conditional, Gearoid Harney continues to recover from his bad fall back in January. He is spending a lot of his time up at Oaksey House in Lambourn to work on his fitness and has another CT scan scheduled for next week, after which we will know more about his potential return to work and race riding.
Amateur, Martin McIntyre does not need surgery on his broken collarbone is sustained in a fall at Ludlow recently and his initial recovery is going well but he will be out of action for a few weeks yet.
Point-to-Point Update
Rian Corcoran had yet another winner between the flags at Chilfrom on Saturday, taking him to 15 for the season, 19 in his career. He leads the National novice rider’s title race and hopefully the winners continue to flow.
On Easter Monday, we do have a couple of entries at our local point to point at Cothelstone. First Lord Du Cuet has an entry in both the hunt race and the conditions race while Royal Defender is entered in the Restricted. There is some rain in the forecast this week so fingers crossed we might get what is promised. Both horses are only likely to run if we get some rain.
Trainers Championship
We all knew it could happen and it did… Willie Mullins did not even have a good a day at Ayr as he could have had on Saturday but he still had a one-two in the Scottish National, which has helped to leave him under £2,000 behind Dan Skelton in the race to be crowned Champion trainer. We are now inside the final two weeks of the 2024-25 National Hunt Season and this has added extra spice to its conclusion. There is plenty of prize money on offer at Cheltenham this week and then at Haydock, Plumpton and others meetings over the weekend and it promises to be an interesting watch as to how it all plays out in the coming days.
