IT HAS been a fairly quiet week all-round here at Pond House though Jack and myself had a good trip to Aintree, met lots of people and bought a horse! We were there on Thursday and Friday and there was a great atmosphere and some good racing.

We are also delighted to have bought Max Potential from the sales that followed racing on Thursday evening. He is a nice four-year-old by Maxios who would have won his only start in an Irish point to point had he not fallen at the final fence last month and he has settled in well since arriving.

He is a lovely big horse who still has a bit of growing to do and he will be one to look forward to in bumpers in the autumn.

We will be fairly quiet on the runner’s front in the early part of this week with our first entries coming on Friday where we have entries at three different meetings. Bashful Boy now sports the colours of the David Pipe Racing Club and has an entry at Bath on the flat and also at Exeter over hurdles.

Show Your Hand could have his second career start in the bumper at our local track, while October Hill and Green Sky may look to back up their good recent runs in different races. All of the horses will want some rain though to take up their engagements.

The track says they are forecast up to 20mm of rain before racing so we will be hoping that they get this. Also on Friday we have Phantomofthepoints and Penn Avenue entered up at Ayr which is the first day of the Scottish National meeting.

Although Cheltenham’s two day meeting has been cancelled, the sales scheduled to take place are still going ahead. Thirty-five lots are drafted to be sold and I am busy going through the catalogue at the moment. The majority are Irish point to pointers but there are some bumper performers as well and horses to suit varying budgets.

At the weekend, we have Parchment entered at Bangor in a novice’s hurdle but his participation will depend on the ground later in the week. We hold him in high regard but after disappointing on stable debut at Kempton back in November which was too bad to be true we have given him all the time he has needed to come right. He seems in good form at home and if he runs I hope he shows us all what he shows at home.

Betty Bowler is an un-raced five-year-old mare out of our formerly very good mare Swing Bowler who was owned by David Johnson during her racing career. She was the daughter of the high class Lady Cricket and half-brother to the very good Red Sherlock. All those mentioned are horses that have done very well here at Pond House.

Kenny Alexander had Swing Bowler after her racing days for breeding and she has bred our very own Phantomofthepoints who has done very well and is currently rated 135 over hurdles.

Betty is the younger half-sister to Phantom and looks very much like her mum in appearance! We received good news in recent days that she has been covered by Passing Glance and we will keep everything crossed that she scans in foal next week.

Dave Pipe was talking to Richard Walsh