THERE has been no jumps racing for a week now and our only runners in recent days were two on the flat at Nottingham last Thursday.

Affection ran her usual honest race to be fourth in the 1m2f handicap. This was just her second start on the level for us and off a rating of 80 she probably just needs a little more help from the handicapper. We will probably look for another race for her on the flat coming up, maybe over slightly further as jockey Clifford Lee felt she would improve for a step up in distance.

Best Night was fourth in her race at Nottingham as well. The plan was not to make the running with her but she jumped from the stalls so well she ended up there! She did not have the speed of some of her rivals as the pace quickened at the end of the race and so if we do run her on the flat again she would prefer going up in distance.

We have no entries coming up but there is plenty going on at the yard and I have several things on this week. The ‘winter’ horses are all back cantering and I am always pleased to get them back into their routine and settled. A lot of our horses that have been running in recent weeks are on a short holiday out in the field but will be back being ridden by the end of this week.

On Friday, we headed to Wolverhampton for Jack and Little Chiefy to run in the 148cm pony race over 1m2f. They got a good start and all was well in the lead as they passed the winning post with a circuit to go. A rival couldn’t quite hold their pony and pulled themselves to the front which then made Little Chiefy quite keen and as a result his saddle went forwards up the pony’s neck.

Jack did well to ride with it like this and was clear with the eventual winner turning into the home straight but just as he was mounting his challenge the saddle slipped round to the side and Jack had no chance of staying on and came off.

Thankfully he and the pony are none the worse for this misadventure which is the main thing. There is a race at Worcester on 19th August over 1m2f and that is our next target.

We were delighted to welcome a couple of new recruits to Pond House over the weekend; horses sent to us by new owners to racing and we look forward to finding out more about them in the coming weeks.

We also claimed two horses in France over the weekend. Two four year olds, both multiple winners and we will be able to crack straight on when racing re-starts on 15th August. They are for sale and look good value so if you would like to know more information about one, or both, please drop us an email [email protected]

We are considering combining them together to form a new small but affordable partnership but are keeping all options open so we would love to hear from you,

Next Week we will start our new series introducing the horses in training here at Pond House for the season ahead.

Dave Pipe was talking to Richard Walsh.