Pipe to keep up the good work!

Following on from his legendary father Martin was never going to be easy for David Pipe. In addition a shift of power to his West Country rival Paul Nicholls and the strengthening of Nicky Henderson’s already powerful string has meant aspirations of being champion trainer have had to take a back seat.

Then when you consider the stable’s chief patron David Johnson suffering from the financial meltdown and considerably reducing his investment, you may feel he is likely to struggle. Not a bit of it. David has kept up his spirits with his fun approach to the game and the winners keep coming.

At the time of writing the stable have had 10 winners in the last fortnight and 63 winners for the season so far, with a combined total of 100 2nd/3rd places. In fact over 40% of his horses have hit the frame in the 400 or so races they have contested, on the whole very impressive stats.

This weekend’s main punting events see David with runners right at the top of the markets. The Lanzarote handicap hurdle at Kempton features the return of decent young improver Decoy and fantastic old stick Buena Vista. I think it’s best to conclude that Buena is getting ready for another festival tilt and that Decoy is the stables big hope.

This French bred took a while to acclimatise and found himself nicely handicap prior to his reappearance at Cheltenham where he took a competitive handicap in decent style. True he was running out of puff late on and would have been collared in another 100 yards or so but he shaped like the best handicapped horse in the field and travelled powerfully until tiring late on.

The Pipe team felt obliged to run him quickly under a penalty but he was beaten by one of Saturday’s rivals Featherbed Lane. Decoy is miles better off at the weights with the Hobbs’ improver and of the pair is less dependent on soft going and should prevail this time.

This is far from a match however with dangers aplenty. The well-handicapped pair Ohio Gold and Timesawastin heading the list along with Act Of Kalanisi and Domtaline. However, Decoy can consider himself fortunate to be only 8lbs above his Cheltenham winning mark and 2lbs higher than when trying to concede weight to Featherbed Lane. He clearly goes well fresh and his prominent run style will be suited to Kempton and although this is very competitive and his chance has not been missed by the books at around 7/1 he makes plenty of appeal for his in-form handler.

The Classic Chase at Warwick sees David unleash two more contenders in the enigmatic Faasel and the lightly raced Sona Sasta. Faasel is not a horse you can ever discount or particularly fancy and he hasn’t been at Pond House very long. Long enough however to have been placed at the last two Cheltenham Festivals and I feel this may be a prep for another crack there.

Sona Sasta looks the one for this race and is still unexposed with only 12 lifetime starts. Sixth in the 4 miler at the festival the 9yr old was runner up to subsequent Welsh National winner Le Beau Bai on his seasonal debut before finishing midfield in the competitive Paddy Power chase at Leopardstown over Christmas. He will need to improve on that but not by much and looks to have a lively chance at Warwick with the well handicapped Strongbows Legend and Brian Ellison’s Neptune Equester the main dangers.

Sona Sasta like Decoy is unlikely to be a fancy price but with the Pipe team firing on all cylinders he rates the pick and an e/w double the pair may proof very profitable.

Good luck with whatever you choose.