LEANNE and I enjoyed a good trip to France last week and came back with a couple of nice new additions for the team. We travelled over by ferry from Portsmouth to Caen overnight on Monday and looked at all the horses on Tuesday while the un-raced two-year-old stores were being sold, then the horses in training went through the ring on Wednesday.

We returned home from Deauville on Wednesday night and the horses were back in the yard on Friday morning.

We purchased Keep Star, a five-year-old gelding and twice a winner over hurdles. He is full brother to Dindin who we recently retired. Dindin won thirteen races in his career and just shy of £250,000 in prize money along the way. He had a great attitude and had a good level of form at his best and hopefully this fella can follow in his footsteps.

Best Night, is a four-year-old filly by Night Wish who has been placed on the flat and looks the sort to do well over hurdles. She is likely to prefer better ground and can run both on the flat and hurdles so we will crack on while we will get to know a bit more about Keep Star before giving him a short holiday.

These two horses are just a couple of four recent additions to the yard with Parchment being a lovely three year old gelding bought privately from France, having won his sole start over hurdles at Compiegne.

Morradi is our fourth new recruit from France and he is for sale should anyone be interested in owning him! He is yet to arrive with us but he will be with us by the end of the week. He is a nice four-year-old bay colt by Cracksman rated 80 on the flat and he is some decent form in the book.

The horses we have trained at Pond House so far by Cracksman have shown great attitudes and have an aptitude for jumping so we hope this one will to! We aim to kick straight on with him so if you would like to know more please get in touch. Email: [email protected] or call the office on 01884 840715.

Hammer Dan was the best of our runners last week and finished a close second at Worcester. Jaipaletemps didn’t stay over 2m4f and found the ground too quick while Chemical Warfare was not at his best and both of these horses are now having a little holiday. Old Bridge found the opposition a little hot at Newton Abbot but has come out of the race fine which is the main thing.

This week, is once again looking fairly quiet on the runners front and Ocean Heights will run on the flat at Kempton on Wednesday. Jack Dace rides again and we have added a visor to sharpen him up so I hope he would have a great chance on a course he likes. Keep checking the Daily News on the website for the latest news of the stable runners.

We were delighted to receive the Timeform Special recognition award last week for Chemical Warfare. He was awarded this for his eight wins last season, which was a great achievement. This will sit proudly on his stable door when he returns from holiday.

Dave Pipe’s column as told to Richard Walsh