- Monday, 17 December 2012 16:54
- Written by David Pipe
As Christmas approaches I am delighted with the form of the yard – we had a fabulous few days last week with five winners on the board courtesy of doubles at Taunton and Lingfield, as well as the feature race of the day at Cheltenham on Friday and a whole host of other noteworthy performances.
- Monday, 10 December 2012 16:52
- Written by David Pipe
Last week was a good one for the yard with four winners and a host of others running very well in defeat. I have already made a favourable mention of Kings Palace following his Plumpton success on Monday under champion jockey AP McCoy – we have always considered him to be a nice horse, but the manner of victory was a pleasant surprise and bodes well for the future.
- Monday, 03 December 2012 16:20
- Written by David Pipe
What a great weekend with the yard enjoying a double courtesy of Weather Babe and Junior on Saturday. Junior was making a triumphant seasonal return when winning the Rehearsal Chase under Conor O’Farrell at Newcastle. The young Irishman gave our nine year old an excellent ride to make all the running on very testing ground under topweight. I was particularly pleased with his foot perfect round of jumping as he took lengths out of his field at each fence. I would imagine we will have to look at one of the staying handicaps at the Festival come March, while the Grand National is still a long-range possibility.
- Monday, 26 November 2012 15:35
- Written by David Pipe
I don’t think that I have ever seen downpours like we have experienced during the last seven days. During that time 136mm of rain (or nearly 6 inches!) has fallen on Pond
House and it has been plenty worse in many other areas of the south west. In the surrounding areas we have witnessed localised flooding with rivers bursting their banks and there have been countless homes and businesses underwater and I do feel terribly sorry for them.
- Monday, 19 November 2012 16:14
- Written by David Pipe
What a thrilling three days of action at the Cheltenham Open meeting and I was delighted with the form of the stable runners throughout the course of the meeting. For the second successive year we finished up with a very satisfying four winners, while a number of other runners also performed creditably to fill the frame. I was also delighted to end up as top trainer at the meeting, given the rich tradition of success that the stable has enjoyed at this fixture down the years.
- Monday, 12 November 2012 14:43
- Written by David Pipe
It was a great end to the week for the stable when The Package landed a long overdue big race success when winning The Badger Ales Chase at Wincanton on Saturday. He has always been a quality horse but has often narrowly missed out on the big occasion having twice finished in the frame in handicaps at the Cheltenham Festival - it was to be his day on Saturday however.
- Monday, 05 November 2012 15:52
- Written by David Pipe
Although we were unable to match the feats of the previous weekend, there were still some noteworthy performances from the stable’s runners at Ascot on Saturday. The racing was fiercely competitive and I was pleased with the runs of War Singer (fourth) and Street Entertainer (fifth) in the Listed William Hill handicap hurdle. The pair of them were beaten a smidge over two lengths and look well capable of winning nice races over timber over the coming months.
