Last week was a busy one for the stable, especially the weekend where we had fourteen runners across the four jumps meetings and it was good to be back among the winners with three successes courtesy of Gwencily Berbas, Sidi Ismael and Brinkley taking our seasonal tally to 17.  With plenty of other notable efforts, the horses continue to go well and I hope to be able to build on this momentum going forward.

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Unfortunately, we were left rueing what might have been at Newbury on Saturday with Remastered taking a horrible looking fall in the straight in the Ladbrokes Trophy when looking to have a great chance.  Of course, the best news is that he was able to get up and is safely back in his box at Pond House, seemingly none the worse for his exertions and we are truly grateful for that.  He will be given a thorough examination by the vet and will also be seen by the equine physiotherapist.

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It was good to be back on the scoreboard last week, courtesy of Sidi Ismael’s Lingfield success on his first start for the stable, taking our tally to 14 for the season.  Either side of that, the horses continued to run well with a string of placed efforts, although, and I keep saying it, we are in desperate need of some rain to ease the ground for our winter horses.

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There were many noteworthy performances last week, none more so than Adagio (pictured above) who ran a fantastic race to finish runner-up in the valuable Greatwood handicap hurdle at Cheltenham on Sunday.  With several other places too, the horses continue to run very well and whilst a little frustrating, I hope that we can start converting those places into winners sooner rather than later.

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I was delighted to be back among the winners last week, courtesy of Eden du Houx’s brave success at Ffos Las on Sunday as well as a number of other very creditable efforts.   Cheltenham’s November meeting is coming up at the end of the week and it is a fixture that has been good to the Pond House team throughout the years, although with dry conditions we will not be having many runners this year.

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The horses continue to run well and whilst a little frustrating that we were able to get on the scoreboard, there were a number of encouraging efforts.  Away from the racecourse, we were busy at the Newmarket Sales, securing some lovely types for the jumps season ahead, whilst looking forward; we have plenty of entries for the week ahead, especially this weekend, including over the Grand National fences at Aintree.

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Above: Fergus Gillard & David back at Cheltenham
          (Photo courtesy of Kay Hornbrook)

It was great to be back at Cheltenham over the weekend.  The course looked magnificent ahead of their season opening two day meeting.  Although we did not hit the mark last week, there were still some decent performances as well as a hard luck story or two, with Do Ya Feel Lucky in particular, unlucky not to score.

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With another dry and mild spell, the ground at many of the tracks remains unsuitable for a lot of our winter horses, despite a number of courses taking the precaution of artificially watering.  Consequently, we only had a few runners last week, but there were some very good performances nonetheless with Leoncavallo in particular, excelling himself in the Welsh Champion Hurdle at Ffos Las on Saturday.

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Like so many others, I was delighted to see the start of the core part of the jumps season at Chepstow last Friday.  Even so, despite heavy rain in the weeks prior to the meeting, the ground had dried out significantly in the days leading up to Friday and meant that we ran only Vieux Lion Rouge at the fixture.  We finished off the week with a winner at Newton Abbot on Sunday, taking our tally for the new campaign to twelve.

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With the rain arriving in some style (38mm in just a few hours on Tuesday afternoon), could it be that the winter jumping ground is finally on its way?  With Chepstow’s Silver Trophy card taking place this weekend, it is that time of the year when the jumps calendar really begins to step up a gear and anticipation around the yard begins to mount.  The horses are in good form and we were on the mark again last Monday with the ready success of Flammarion (pictured above) at Newton Abbot.

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