- Monday, 18 June 2012 15:47
- Written by David Pipe
While there was no racing on Sunday I donned my cricketing whites to play for Tom Scu’s cricket team who were playing for charity against local side Culmstock. This was the 4th year of the event in aid of the South West Children’s Hospice and despite a couple of heavy rain downpours we managed to complete the game in good spirits and raise some money. Also on our team were Michael Scudamore, Warren Greaterex and his two children, who were the best players by far! Jockeys Joe Tizzard, Sam Thomas, Charlie Huxley and Tom Bellamy were also in the line up. We batted first and coming to the crease at number 6 I scored 15 runs before being caught out! As you can see from the photo, son Jack consoled me as I came off the field! We set a target of 158 which was quite respectable with a shortened over’s game because of the rain interruption. I bowled a few over’s and had no luck with a wicket although I did make a catch while fielding out in the deep! We unfortunately lost as the home team reached are target with a few over’s to spare but a great afternoon was had by all and I am already looking forward to next year!
- Monday, 11 June 2012 15:39
- Written by David Pipe
As I alluded to last week, the inclement weather is certainly playing havoc for the racecourses and us trainers alike. It can mean only one thing – Wimbledon is just around the corner! Seriously though, with 79mm of rain falling at Pond House over the first ten days of June, that already equals the total amount of rainfall that we had for the month of January (when you expect it to be wet and miserable!).
- Wednesday, 06 June 2012 06:59
- Written by David Pipe
The recent unsettled weather is certainly playing havoc with the summer ground. After a prolonged warm and dry spell it hasn’t stopped raining here since Saturday night – we measured 18mm over the weekend and I know that plenty of other places throughout the country have had considerably more. That makes the life of ground staff at the racecourses particularly difficult as they try to prepare the tracks for forthcoming meetings and I do sympathise with them as they have a thankless task trying to please everyone.
- Monday, 28 May 2012 15:02
- Written by David Pipe
It’s been a quiet week on the racing front with runners at Newton Abbot last Monday, Towcester on Tuesday and Worcester on Wednesday, but with relatively few jumps fixtures taking place and the ground firming up by the day there have been precious few other opportunities. Nevertheless we have made the most of the chances that have presented themselves with a double at Towcester courtesy of Barton Stacey and Bathwick Man and a further success at Worcester with Broadway Buffalo.
- Tuesday, 22 May 2012 07:31
- Written by David Pipe
It’s good to be back! I have just returned from a lovely few days down on Portugal’s Algarve. It’s a beautiful place and we were lucky with the weather – my son Jack and daughter Sophie had a lovely time and you can’t really ask for more than that. Nevertheless, I was pleased to be home especially as lengthy delays at the airport meant that we arrived back at some ungodly hour on Saturday morning.
- Monday, 14 May 2012 15:56
- Written by David Pipe
The horses continue to run well with Water Garden, Standing Ovation, Regal County, Weekend Millionair, Shallow Bay and Shoegazer all reaching the frame, but it was Midnight Tuesday who was the one to get his head in front when scoring at Worcester on Sunday under young Tom Bellamy. Tom certainly seems to get on well with our seven year old gelding and is now two wins from two starts aboard him.
- Wednesday, 09 May 2012 10:05
- Written by David Pipe
With the 2012/13 season underway, I am pleased to be off the mark for the new campaign with a couple of winners courtesy of Diamond’s Return and Shoegazer. Diamond’s Return, our last winner of 2011/12 was our first winner this time around as he continued his rapid improvement when bolting up at Exeter under Conor O’Farrell to land his third win in the space of ten days. The handicapper has reacted by putting him up a total of 21lbs for those three successes to a new mark of 111 so he is obviously going to find things tougher from now on. Even so, he is still only lightly raced and hopefully open to further improvement.
