End of Season

The 2024-25 jumps season came to a thrilling conclusion on Saturday with Willie Mullins, not surprisingly having yet another super Saturday and coming from behind Dan Skelton at the start of the day to well in front and win the title in convincing fashion by the end of it. 

We end the season on 50 winners, which is a great achievement, bettering last year’s 46, from less runners as well.  We also bettered our previous winning prize money total, winning £617,583, up by £160,000 and operating at a 14% strike rate (up from 12%).  32% of the different horses we ran combined to register our wins and Jack Tudor was on board 42 of our 50 winners.  Jack has had best ever season and finished on the 70 winner mark, with his previous best being 47 last season.  It is a step back in the right direction for the team and something to build on again this time around.

It was a shame the dry weather conditions impacted the end of the season for us as we did not want to risk many of our horses on the ground, therefore we did not have many runners in the final few weeks.  Sirekoff nearly finished off the campaign in style at Bangor finishing second but it was a good run and hopefully his winning turn will be when the new season gets under way shortly. 

Jumps racing takes a few days break before getting underway again at Uttoxeter and Hexham at the weekend.  We do of course have Punchestown to look forward to in between and we are heading across the Irish Sea with two runners who run in the opening contest on Wednesday’s card at 2.30pm.  American Sniper and Thanksforthehelp both travel over for the Adare Manor Opportunity Series handicap hurdle final; a race the latter has been placed in before.  The race is for conditional jockeys and Ben Bromley will partner American Sniper while Gavin Brouder rides Thanksforthehelp.  American Sniper is owned by a group of local lads and they love going to Punchestown every year anyway so to have a runner out there is a dream come true.  It will be a fiercely competitive handicap but I would hope both of our horses have small each way chances. 

Our first runners of the new season in Britain are likely to be at Uttoxeter on Saturday where Punta Del Este, Missy Mole and Neon Moon all have entries.  Keep checking the Daily News on the website for all the latest information on the stable runners.

King Turgeon leads the way for the yard in amount of prize money won this season, just over £103,000, while Chemical Warfare was the leader numerically with a terrific eight wins to his name.  King Turgeon won of three of his six starts, with particular highlights being winning the Grand Sefton chase over the Grand National fences at Aintree and a nice handicap at Cheltenham as well.  We look forward to him returning to Aintree in the autumn for another go over the National fences with the long-term aim ultimately of the Grand National should his rating get high enough.

Chemical Warfare won eight races from 14 starts throughout the season and was perhaps unlucky not have had another one when falling late on having every chance at the time.  New to the yard twelve months ago, his first win came from a mark of 75 over hurdles but he proved to be a better chaser and now rated 120 in this sphere.  While life is now tougher, he has a great attitude and thrives on work and racing and I do not see why he cannot continue to improve a little more.  He is a pleasure to train and credit to the yard. 

Kingston Queen and Lady Balko are two mares who have had great seasons adding two and three wins to the team total respectively.  Kingston Queen won a bumper on Boxing Day at Sedgefield before listed success at Market Rasen in January.  She ran a cracker at Aintree as well to be a close third and is an exciting prospect for novice hurdles next winter.

Lady Balko made a seamless transition to chasing this season and notched up a hat trick of wins, which included success in a valuable mares chase at Hereford in December.  Things did not quite go to plan later in the season, but she is another likeable mare and there is plenty more fun to be had with her going forwards. 

Jurancon is an exciting young horse who won three times during the season and is now five wins from eight starts in his career and finishing runner up on the other three occasions as well.  The plan was for him to run at Aintree but I decided against it because of the ground and put him away for the season.  He has big potential for both hurdling and then chasing in the future.

I was absolutely gutted when Windbeneathmywings was unable to take his chance in the Cheltenham Festival bumper in March.  After blowing his rivals away at Ascot before Christmas, I think he would have taken all the beating at Cheltenham.  Thankfully, however, his injury is healing well and shortly he will be going out to grass for his summer holiday like the others with the aim of returning to action in the autumn over hurdles.  While we have not done any schooling with him ourselves, he has jumped in Ireland and they tell me he was good!  He has a huge engine and I will be dreaming of getting him back on the racecourse all summer!

We have experienced some great highs during the season and a few lows, which are inevitable.  Double winners for the team this season include Activist, Hammer Dan, Mr Tambourine Man, Oceanline, River Run Free and Vision De Maine while Neon Moon, Phantomofthepoints and Jilaijone (and others) have contributed nicely to our prize money and season’s tally. 

Gearoid Harney, Harry Cobden, Tom Bellamy and Fergus Gillard are other jockeys to have ridden us winners during season.  Remastered is a stable favourite to have recently retired, what a career he has had and what a memorable victory he gave us all at Wincanton in the first half of the season. 

While a lot of horses will shortly being going out to grass we have a small team to keep us going over the summer months.  We are delighted to have just taken in four new young recruits who we will learn more about before they go on their holidays and we will continue to look to add to the team further over the coming months.   

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my wonderful owners and team of staff without whom, none of this would be possible. 

Well done to Dan and Willie for providing a great climax to the season and special congratulations to Sean Bowen for being champion jockey and Freddie Gingell for being champion conditional.  Sean has had a terrific season, he is a fantastic rider and winning the Bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown on Saturday was a fitting end to his season.  I would not be surprised if this was the first of many championships for him in the years to come. 

Leanne and I are off to Punchestown later this week,  I hope you enjoy the sunshine forecast and the action from Ireland everyone.  Thanks for reading and supporting Pond House over the last 12 months and here’s to a happy and successful 2025-26 season ahead.