Devonshire Handler Pipe Eyes Cheltenham Festival Glory

Pipe's Training Legacy

Seventeen years after taking over the training licence of his legendary father, Martin, Devonshire handler David Pipe has made great strides toward building a legacy of his own.

He’s won the Grand National (with Comply or Die in 2008), the Hennessy Gold Cup and a Grade 1 outing in France; the Grand Course de Haies d’Auteuil. But it’s the 15 winners and counting that Pipe’s Nicholashayne yard has trained at the Cheltenham Festival which will linger on for the 50-year-old, his connections and syndicate members and punters alike.

Time has done little to diminish his competitive spirit either, with Pipe heading to Prestbury Park this month with a small but high-quality squad of horses hoping for a repeat of past heroics.Remastered is considered a live contender for the Ultima Handicap on Tuesday March 14, while Sizing Pottsie is expected to get a run out in the Grand Annual Challenge a day later.

According to the Cheltenham day 3 antepost betting odds, the Thursday of the Festival could be Pipe’s best hope for a winner: Thanksforthehelp is the current second favourite with the bookies for the Pertemps Network Final Hurdle, while Panic Attack – despite being a 40/1 outsider – enters a race known for its shock results; the amateur jockeys’ Kim Muir Challenge Cup.

Cheltenham Festival - Carine06 via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Pipe will close out his Festival on Friday, March 17th, with Thomas Mor in the Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle.

Even the shock retirement of regular rider Tom Scudamore has done little to diminish the positivity in Pipe’s camp. He will head north for Festival week feeling as though a 16th Cheltenham winner is a distinct possibility.

Runners and Riders

Racing fans may well recall Un Temps Pour Tout, one of the finest horses to graduate from Pipe’s Pond House yard in recent times.

He was a two-time Ultima Handicap Chase winner with Scudamore on board in 2016 and 2017. And now Remastered has the chance to make it a hat-trick in the three-mile steeplechase.

The ten-year-old, owned by the Brocade Racing group, enjoyed a stellar end to 2022, winning quality renewals at Aintree and Kempton – getting the nod in the former over the well-fancied Milan Bridge. If he gets softer ground, Remastered will be a player in the Ultima next week.

Cheltenham Racecourse - Carine06 via Wikimedia (CC BY-SA 2.0)

If fairly treated by the handicapper, Sizing Pottsie is no forlorn hope in the Grand Annual, but it’s Thanksforthehelp who looks the best of the bunch for Pipe – especially if the weather remains fair in the next week or so.

The JP McManus-owned horse has generally performed better on firmer ground, with a win in the Pertemps race at Chepstow – an excellent marker for the Cheltenham edition of the same – coming on a surface that was described as good in places.

Thomas Mor, meanwhile, has won on three of his four starts – the latter an impressive turn in the Bracknell Handicap Chase at Ascot while carrying near-enough top weight. So he can handle the near three-mile trip, that’s for certain.

Can any of these horses add to Pipe’s fantastic record at the Cheltenham Festival in 2023?