IT HAS been a good week for the yard with another three winners on the board, bringing our total for the season to 24.
Jack Tudor, unfortunately, missed riding the winners as he was on the sidelines with a four-day ban but it is not too bad for us when the reigning champion jockey, Harry Cobden, is available to ride!
King Turgeon made his seasonal reappearance at Chepstow, a track he loves and put in a tremendous round of jumping and won very impressively. He is a very athletic six year old and jumping is his big asset which is why we made an early closing entry for him in the Grand Sefton chase at Aintree over the National fences.
Chemical Warfare has been a star since arriving with us and recorded his fifth win up at Newcastle with Harry Cobden once again in the saddle.
Walkadina made a very impressive hurdling debut at Uttoxeter on Friday in the hands of Tom Bellamy. She has run well enough in two bumpers and we do hold her in high regard but I am not sure I was expecting quite an exciting a performance as we got!
Neon Moon probably put in a career best effort to be third at Ascot on Saturday off a mark of 136. The winner Chianti Classico is now favourite for the Coral Gold Cup and Newbury and looks a very nice horse. We were not far behind him and he kept galloping all the way to the line.
Gentlemantoboot made a very pleasing debut in the bumper at Newton Abbot to be a close third.
Pachacuti and Royal Mer both finished fourth in their races at Newton Abbot and while a little disappointing, Royal Mer is a much better chaser than hurdler and it will be back over the larger obstacles next. Pachacuti will be better returned to three miles next time as he found 2m4f a little on the sharp side.
Itseemslikeit was the real disappointment of the week for no obvious reason. He goes very nicely at home and we will probably see him out over fences next on a more galloping track. Lady Balko made a pleasing start to her chasing career but just found everything happening a little too quickly over 2m4f and she will step back up in distance next time also.
We sadly lost Paricolor at Bangor last week and it hit the yard quite hard. He was part of the family here at Pond House and has been a wonderful asset to our yard for the last five years. He won nine races for us and was placed a further twelve times. He may not have been ‘top class’ but he had a big heart and always tried. He was in the process of running well at Bangor when he suffered a freak injury but the vets were on hand very quickly and he did not suffer. He leaves us all with some very fond memories.
It promises to be another busy week for the yard with plenty of runners providing the ground stays safe.
On Tuesday, we have runners at Warwick and five at Chepstow the following day.
On Thursday, we could run American Sniper in the Pertemps qualifier at Newbury while on Friday we have entries at Fontwell and Exeter. As already mentioned, King Turgeon has an entry at Aintree on Saturday while Remastered could go back to Wincanton for the Badger Ales Chase. We have several entries at Ffos Las on Sunday so keep checking the Daily News section of the website for the latest news.
David Pipe’s column