Western Morning News (Saturday)
CHELTENHAM 2021
DAVID PIPE INTERVIEW
ANYBODY who knows anything about National Hunt will be familiar with the name David Pipe.
Son of Martin Pipe CBE, 15 times champion jumps trainer and the most successful in British racing history… with such a rich pedigree, the path for succession was clear.
“He rewrote the way horses are trained nowadays, so they were big shoes to fill,” says David, who was a talented point-to-point jockey and trainer before taking over the Pond House licence from his father in April 2006. “But at the same time, I was very lucky to have inherited great horses, owners and staff to get me started.”
Nestled in the tiny hamlet of Nicholashayne, near Wellington, Pond House has been synonymous with the Pipe family since the Seventies, gradually expanding and evolving to what you see today. Boasting everything a chaser or hurdler could possibly wish for, there are around 80 horses currently in training for the 2020-21 season.
And this year’s campaign is producing results, with 49 winners steered home by either Tom Scudamore, Fergus Gillard or David Noonan.
“You try to make every stable a winning stable,” says David, who lives at Pond House with his fiancée Leanne and three children: 11-yearold Jack, nine-year-old Sophie and five-year-old Martha. “We’re having a good season and the horses are running well.”
So, what’s the key to training winners? Forget fancy mission statements, for a start, because at the heart of David’s ethos is keeping his charges “happy and healthy”. Horse welfare is the number one priority for Pond House’s highly experienced and knowledgeable team of around 30 staff, many of whom are longstanding names on the payroll.
“It’s about treating every horse as an individual,” he explains. “Keeping them happy and healthy is the straightforward bit, the bigger challenge is finding out what makes them tick. What makes you tick might not make me tick, so it’s trying to get inside their head. That comes from watching them with your own eyes and listening to the feedback from the staff.
“Horses love routine and knowing what they’re doing. It may only be little things you do with a horse, but they can really count.”
Pond House’s wealth of training facilities include a five-furlong woodchip gallop, three-furlong Wexford circular sand gallop, an indoor canter and loose schooling area, two treadmills, two horse walkers, a swimming pool and a solarium.
The yard also has its own on-site laboratory to carry out regular blood tests and endoscopies – a practice pioneered by Martin Pipe and one that is now commonplace in the industry.
“Like most sports, the science has come into racing a lot more now,” says David. “We take the temperature of every horse twice a day, as that will be the first thing to spike if they are feeling unwell.
“It’s like a school of children – they can’t all be healthy at the same time, so it’s trying to maintain the ratio of having as many as possible fully fit and healthy. When that ratio is reversed, that’s when you get problems. As well as seeing how the horse is in himself, how he eats and how he looks, you’ve got the science there, too, so plenty of information to try and make the right decision.
“If you watch them closely, horses can talk. We’re just usually in too much of a rush to listen.”
With all these amenities at David’s disposal, there’s no doubting that the team of horses heading to this year’s Cheltenham Festival will be in peak health and fitness.
The stands at Prestbury Park for the National Hunt showpiece will be unusually silent as the four-day meeting takes place behind closed doors from Tuesday to Friday next week, in line with the Government’s current coronavirus restrictions.
David says: “It will be very different. But it will still be our Olympics, it will still be great to take part in, and it will still be amazing to have a winner.
“If you’re a big trainer, having a winner at the Festival is what people judge you on – probably a little bit too much, but that’s the way it’s gone. But it’s harder and harder every year to get a winner there. It’s all about ‘eras’ and at the present moment it’s the Irish era. They’re very strong. You’ve got the Irish trainers, Nicky Henderson and then there’s the rest of us!”
David has a strong hand to play at the Festival, with his leading contenders heading to the big meeting in winning form.
Pond House’s shortest-priced chance is likely to be Adagio in the
It will be very different. But it will still be our Olympics, it will still be great to take part in
DAVID PIPE
JCB Triumph Hurdle. A winner of three of his four outings this season, the four-year-old already has a Grade 1 victory next to his name, having won the Coral Finale Juvenile Hurdle at Chepstow in January.
Bought after a claiming race – the lowest grade – in France last summer, David says the German-bred gelding, owned by Bryan Drew and friends and Professor Caroline Tisdall, has done “remarkably well” to go on and win at the highest level, less than a year after joining the Pipe stable.
“He’ll go straight to Cheltenham now and hopefully he’s got a good chance,” he adds. “He handles any type of ground and is improving quickly.”
Another to note is Remastered, who is three-from-three over fences this season and was an impressive winner of the Grade 2 Reynoldstown Novices’ Chase at Ascot last month. Carrying the silks of Garth and Anne Broom, who operate under the name Brocade Racing, the eight-year-old chestnut by Network holds entries in the three-mile Ultima Handicap Steeple Chase and three-mile, sixfurlong National Hunt Steeple Chase Challenge Cup. “He keeps on improving and loves soft ground,” David adds.
Fellow Brocade Racing representative Brinkley, a winner at Wincanton and Exeter recently, heads for
the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle, while Leoncavallo’s options are either the McCoy Contractors County Handicap Hurdle or the Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle.
Back in work having had a short holiday, Leoncavallo is owned by Value Racing Club and joined the Pond House string from Dr Richard Newland in February 2020.
Although yet to run over hurdles, the nine-year-old scored in a novice chase at Stratford last July, followed by a win on the flat at Haydock in August.
David says: “He’s a real tough customer and quite a character, one that we love. He wears his heart on his sleeve and gives his all, so he’ll have an each-way chance in whatever he runs in.”
Although David is no stranger to success at the very highest level, with multiple Cheltenham Festival winners under his belt and a Grand National courtesy of Comply Or Die in 2008, the final countdown to the Festival never fails to get the nerves jangling.
“There’s a real buzz of nervous excitement around the yard,” he says. “Twenty-four hours is a long time with a horse. If they are going to stand on a stone or do something stupid it will be the week before the
Festival, so it’s trying to further minimise possible injuries or risks.
“Once you’re there, the nerves definitely set in. At a normal Cheltenham, the atmosphere is electric. The jockeys get uptight a couple of weeks before as they want to be there in one piece, while for the trainers its trying to get your team there in the best possible form.”
While nearly 250,000 spectators attended the Festival last year, crowds have been almost entirely absent from racecourses since, apart from two pilot events at Doncaster and Warwick and a brief period of small-scale attendances in December.
Setting out its own roadmap for lifting lockdown, the British Horseracing Authority has said it plans to allow owners back from March 29, followed by spectators from May 17 at the earliest.
Owners have been denied entry to racecourses since the country was put back under lockdown restrictions in early January and although it will be disappointing not to have them at the Festival, David is keen to focus on the positives and paid tribute to their support throughout the pandemic.
“We should look for the positives. We’re racing and the Cheltenham Festival is going ahead. I’m sure viewers at home will have their picnics laid out, online betting accounts set up and a bottle of wine open as they watch the ITV Racing coverage. It will still be fabulous, it’s just that everyone will be enjoying it in a slightly different way this year.”
He continues: “Our owners have been superb and very supportive. Obviously they can’t go, but we try and keep them informed as much as we can. We do lots of videos of the horses on the gallops and when they go to the races. The jockey will also record a video with their post-race feedback. In this technological day and age, it can easily be sent onto the owner through WhatsApp or whatever platform works best for them.
“It’s worked pretty well. We do a lot of videos anyway, but I didn’t realise how much people look forward to something live to watch – be it a football match or horse race – rather than a replay.
“Prize money levels aren’t great in England at the present moment, so it’s been a bit of a double whammy for the owners.”
For those not in a position to afford full training fees, the David Pipe Racing Club provides its members with the thrills of ownership at a fraction of the price – £100 per year.
David says: “We have a WhatsApp group for the club and if we get a winner it goes mental! A lot of people have recently renewed their membership for another year and I think that, especially in the current climate, they’re getting a lot of fun out of it.”
Moving forward out of lockdown, David is confident that the racing industry will bounce back to its full glory, able to be enjoyed once again in the manner we all know and love.
He concludes: “We’ve unfortunately got to live with Covid-19 now for the rest of our lives. But we live with the flu and I’m sure there will be other viruses in years to come. After this pandemic, I think we will all appreciate things a little bit more, including celebrating a winner with owners and crowds at the racecourse.”