CHEMICAL Warfare was our 49th winner of the season when winning at Sedgefield on Friday evening - and what a star he has been since joining us.

In just under twelve months, he has now won seven of his fourteen races, a 50 per cent strike rate. His first win was from a mark of 75 at Market Rasen, while on Friday he was winning from a rating of 115 and this was for the third time at Sedgefield.

His progression has been a joy to watch and he is a horse who wears his heart on his sleeve and always tries his best. He is a horse who thrives on his work and routine; we tried to give him a little break during the winter but I am not sure he enjoyed being off games that much!

Pub Crawl could learn a lot from his friend Chemical Warfare and having travelled up to Sedgefield as well he finished fourth in his race. Phantomofthepoints ran well to be fourth at Ayr on ground that was livelier than ideal. He is now on his summer holiday.

Jack and I travelled up to Ayr in the horsebox and we then dropped Phantom home after racing to owner Kenny Alexander’s stud.

Our first runner of the week is on the all-weather at Kempton on Tuesday evening, Ocean Heights and he runs in the concluding 1m4f handicap on the card. He is a big price but hopefully he can build on last time.

On Wednesday, we have three runners, American Sniper at Cheltenham and two at Ffos Las, an extra meeting that was put on with the abandonments of Taunton and Wincanton.

It is a shame that these meetings were lost, having run out of water to irrigate but it was great the BHA were proactive and got these additional meetings on and on a course that generally has softer conditions than many.

We run Shot Boii and River Run Free in the 3-mile handicap chase. Rain is forecast at the track and as long as we get it, I hope that both horses have good each way chances. Jack Tudor rides River Run Free while Fergus Gillard re-unites with Shot Boii.

On Thursday, we just have the two entries, Belfrina at Cheltenham and Eton Mes at Ffos Las. Belfrina is unlikely to run unless Cheltenham do get any rain while Eton Mes could take his chance and make his Pond House debut in the bumper if conditions are right.

There is no jumps action on Friday, being it is Good Friday, Punta Del Este has an entry at Plumpton on Sunday but keep checking the Daily News on the website for all the latest news on the stable runners.

Conditional jockey Gearoid Harney continues to recover from his bad fall back in January. He is spending a lot of his time up at Oaksey House in Lambourn to work on his fitness and has another CT scan scheduled for next week, after which we will know more about his potential return to work and race riding. Amateur Martin McIntyre does not need surgery on his broken collarbone he sustained in a fall at Ludlow recently and his initial recovery is going well but he will be out of action for a few weeks yet.

Dave Pipe’s column as told to Richard Walsh