Tom Scu Retires

    Tom Scu Announces Retirement

Tom Scudamore has retired from race riding with immediate effect.  Tom and his wife Sara came to visit David at Pond House last night on his way home from racing to break the news which came as a complete shock.  Tom has been with me since the beginning and has always been a great asset to me, our horses and owners.  Tom was concussed from a fall from Royal Defender in a Bumper at Chepstow a couple of weeks ago and despite a good recovery I believe some words the doctors said to him during his time off about concussion and the risks it poses as you get older provoked some thoughts about his future as a jockey.  He returned to ride at Leicester yesterday on what we thought was a winning opportunity aboard Ya Know Yaseff but they got no further than the third fence when our mare blundered and got rid of Scu.  While a relatively ‘soft’ fall compared to some, her hooves kicked his helmet which smashed and broke and I think this was the moment Tom knew that was it.

Tom started out his career in point to points and his first winner over fences was Young Thruster at Newton Abbot in November 1998 aged 16.  He was champion amateur in 2001 and rode in his first Grand National that year aboard Northern Starlight.  He turned professional in October 2001 and his first win as a pro came that month aboard Belle D’Anjou at Chepstow.  His first Cheltenham Festival winner came aboard An Accordion in 2008 and he has had ten Festival winners.  We have won many of the top races together, too many to mention here and he rode 150 winners in the 2015-15 season.  He retires having ridden just shy of 1500 winners in Britain and some abroad as well.

He has been a valuable member of our team since David started training and the riding side is just one part, albeit a very important part!  His experience, knowledge and feedback have been invaluable.  The Pipe/Scudamore association started with MCP and Peter and David was proud to continue it working alongside Tom.  While Tom has yet to decide quite what the future holds I believe he has a few options in the Pipeline.  At Pond House we have always had a good team of jockeys supporting Tom Scudamore we will consider our options for the future carefully before making any long-term decisions.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Tom for all his support, dedication, hard-work and talent in the saddle as our stable jockey.  We are sad to see him retire but I am glad he does so on his own terms and we all must look to the future.

Every day in racing starts with optimism and hope for how well your horses might run in their respective races and you have good days, bad days and some that are a bit indifferent and that is how I would describe yesterday from my point of view!  I have to confess I am an optimist and forever hopeful but I did think we could have a couple of winners yesterday but things did not quite work out!  Jilaijone ran a good race to be fourth at Sandown.  The winner won impressively but it proved difficult to get close to the front from off the pace.

Red Happy was third in the Royal Artillery Gold Cup and probably paid a little bit for going a little quick in the early stages while Texard pulled up down the back straight.  Horses and jockeys have all come back fine which is the main thing.  Meanwhile at Leicester unfortunately Ya Know Yaseff made a mistake at one of the early fences and got rid of Tom Scu before they had even gone half a mile.  It was far too soon to say what could have happened but I would have been disappointed if she was not involved in the finish had she still been in the race.  She seems none the worse for her mishap and she has entries coming up so she may be out again fairly quickly while the ground is good.  Koi Dodville ran well on his return to action be second in the handicap chase.  It was jockey Gearoid Harney’s first ride for the stable and did a good job in guiding our five year old round.  He galloped all the way to the line and jumped as well as he ever has over fences so it was a nice performance all round and hopefully he can go one better next time.

We have just the one runner today, Borntobealeader at Southwell on the flat this evening.  He runs in the 7.15pm handicap over 1m4f with John Egan in the saddle.  He ran okay in his last flat run at Lingfield three weeks ago without getting properly involved and I am not quite sure how it will go this evening.  He is one of the outsiders of the field and he may need a little help from the handicapper.

There was due to be jumping action at Fakenham today but unfortunately the meeting was abandoned earlier in the week with the going pretty firm and they are not able to water the course at this time of year.  There is however jumps racing up at Kelso today and they have a competitive card with plenty of runners.  There is also all-weather action at Lingfield and in Ireland they race at Dundalk.

Manchester United were in action in Europe last night, away at Barcelona and they drew 2-2 in what was a cracking game. I visited the Nou Camp when I was visiting the city and it is an amazing stadium.

The first cricket test match between New Zealand and England is taking place in Mount Maunganui and it is going well so far.  England batted and declared on day one with 325 runs for nine wickets.  They did this in order to bowl at the home team under the floodlights and rewarded with three wickets at the close play for only 37 runs.  They are now in an excellent position to hopefully go on and win the match.   

I’m starting a business to teach short people maths.  It’s called making little things count!  Have a good Friday!