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The Horses Who Made Me
'There must have been 50 bookmakers in all and we had 1,000 to 30 with them all. We won fortunes, we won the lottery!'
Lewis Porteous catches up with legendary trainer Martin Pipe
author image
Lewis Porteous
Reporter
Martin Pipe: legendary trainer admired by Amy Murphy
Martin Pipe: "It was only a seller but we thought he was a good thing'"
Before the horses who shaped the career of a true pioneer came the inspiration behind it. Martin Pipe remembers his father as a tough taskmaster, but there is no disguising his admiration for the individual who had the biggest influence on his life.
David Pipe snr was a self-made man who went from running an illegal bookmakers in his home to selling a chain of 40 betting shops to William Hill. He proved that anything was possible and, when he told his son that there was "no such word as 'can't'", Pipe took it literally.
He had every intention of following his father into the bookmaking profession but when the family's shops were sold and he was forbidden from working for the new owners by his dad, he had no choice but to change direction.
"I thought I'd ride," says Pipe, who had no background in the saddle but was never put off by inexperience. "I was absolutely clueless and totally useless but I managed to get a licence to ride in point-to-points."
His career as a jockey proved short-lived, thanks in no small part to a horse called Lorac – the name of Pipe's wife Carol spelt backwards – who gave his rider a horrible fall at Taunton that left him with a broken femur and in traction for months.
While he was laid up in Bridgwater Hospital, Carol was in nearby Taunton giving birth to their son David and it didn't take long for the stricken jockey to realise riding wasn't his calling in life.
"I managed to ride a point-to-point winner afterwards but I was no good and that was it," he says. "That injury taught me an awful lot. When I started training I always tried to get the horses to jump for the lads who ride them. The horses have got to have practice, practice and more practice."
Out of the proceeds of his betting shops, Pipe's father bought a derelict West Country farm that would become the most powerful training centre in Britain.
Pipe's uncle was the first to train there, while there was a time when greyhounds were the most successful four-legged animals based at Pond House, but when Martin took control he began to transform not only its fortunes but the way racehorses were trained.
"It was trial and error because I knew nothing at all," he says of his formative years training. "The first horse I bought cost £300 at the sales and I thought it was a bargain. I didn't know it had a bowed tendon because I didn't know anything at the time but it's the best thing I ever did. Dad went berserk, but it taught me. I read veterinary books and everything to see what I could do with it. It all evolved from there."
Pipe was by no means an overnight success. In fact he was conspicuously unsuccessful to start with, but he was desperate to educate himself, prepared to adapt and intrigued to try something new.
Top of the list: Baron Blakeney's 1981 Triumph success is immortalised on Pipe's festival honours board
Martin Pipe next to his festival honours board at his home in Somerset
Credit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)
His first winner was Hit Parade in a selling hurdle at Taunton in May 1975, partnered by Len Lungo. Unremarkable at the time, it turned out to be the first of 4,183.
"Hit Parade was bought out of a seller," Pipe remembers. "He wasn't the best of jumpers and we decided he was going to lead and go around the inside. It was the first hurdle race on the card, so we went around and loosened all the hurdles on the inside before the race.
"I had £1,000 on him. It was only a seller and he was a 7-4 shot but we thought he was a good thing. It was fantastic when he won and I thought, 'I'm a trainer now'.
"He taught me a lot. He had terrible joints so we never trotted him and put cold water and God knows what on his legs. We'd spend hours doing that to look after him. From then onwards, I never used to trot horses."
With no preconceived notions or received wisdom, there was nothing to stop Pipe pushing the boundaries. He broke the mould in the mornings and began working his horses up short, steep gallops to improve their fitness. He also built his own laboratory at Pond House, giving him access to rapid test results, and he made sure his horses swam regularly.
Pipe found a winning recipe but never stopped fine-tuning it. He was crowned champion trainer 15 times in all, although championships could not have been further from his thoughts at the start.
"I thought If I win all the sellers in a season I'll have 50 winners and that was my ambition. All the horses we bought were cheap and all I wanted was to win the sellers."
In the end he won everything from the Champion Hurdle to the Grand National but it was victory in a seller at Haydock in 1980 that he still describes as the "best race I ever won".
"We had an almighty gamble," he recalls with a good old chuckle of the Rod Millman-ridden Carrie Ann. "I'd schooled him around a few racecourses and it was a donkeys' race. There were about 20 runners and he was fit.
"It was only the second time Chester Barnes had been to the races. Carrie Ann was available at 33-1 on course, and I told Chester go and have 2,000 to 60 with the first bookmaker. Chester comes back and says he hasn't altered the odds, so I told him to go in again. There must have been 50 bookmakers in all and we had 1,000 to 30 with them all. We won fortunes, we won the lottery!"
The real genius of the punt was backing him off course but at Tote prices. "£20 to win on the Tote paid £4,916," he says after consulting his extensive records. "They put limits on Tote betting after that but we backed him in every betting shop around here on the Tote and Dad backed it with every credit bookmaker in England.
"We had a bit of an argument the day before because Dad was asking why I was going to Haydock. 'Go to Taunton and save petrol money,' he said. It was 244 miles to Haydock but he was just winding me up and checking that he really was a certainty.
"He told Chester to put £5 on the Tote at the track, no more, to make sure there was a dividend. We forgot to pick that up!"
The following year provided Pipe with his first Cheltenham Festival success courtesy of a 66-1 shot who upset the British banker in the Triumph Hurdle.
From the clouds: Baron Blakeney (yellow and red, Paul Leach) begins to overhaul Broadsword (Peter Scudamore) up the Cheltenham hill
Baron Blakeney and Paul Leach (yellow and red) begin to overhaul Broadsword and Peter Scudamore up the Cheltenham hill
Credit: Gerry Cranham
"He was a box walker," is his initial memory of Baron Blakeney. "I thought, 'I'll stop that', and put 50 tyres in his stable so he couldn't move, but then he'd pull out lame. My theory was that he was only walking his box to keep himself loose and by putting in the tyres I stopped him from being able to do that, so the tyres soon came out.
"He used to swim and swim and I had to run him where his owner Bob Wheatley said. If it was rock-hard today he ran, if it was bottomless tomorrow he ran, because that's what he said.
"He was rated about ninth best in The Sporting Life, so he had a squeak, and I always say if he'd been trained by Fred Winter he'd have been 14-1 but, being trained by an idiot who hadn't won anything, we got 66-1.
"He beat Broadsword, who was a certainty. Everyone thought he was a good thing ridden by Peter Scudamore but we beat him. It was fantastic and that was my first big winner, which must have helped me."
He was certainly making progress but it was another seven years before Pipe was back in the number one spot at Cheltenham and Sondrio's win in the 1989 Supreme Novices' Hurdle was the one which opened the festival floodgates.
"He was an American-bred and had terrible joints," says his trainer. "Scu was offered the ride on one of the favourites for Paul Green instead and I said it was fine for him to ride.
"I told Jonothan Lower he was riding and told him to school it, school it and school it! On the day he went off and made all. There's a picture of Scu hitting the ground after he came off at the third hurdle. He later told me the ambulance staff got to him, saw him hitting the ground, and said, 'You're in agony'. But all that happened was he had heard the result and he was pounding the ground in anger."
Pipe ended up with 34 Cheltenham Festival winners in all but Rolling Ball, owned by Stan Clarke and winner of the 1991 Sun Alliance Chase, was one who played a special part in his ascent.
"He opened up the French angle, I think," says his trainer. "I claimed a lot of horses from France and they all won. Rolling Ball only made his chase debut at Warwick in February and won the Sun Alliance on his second start over fences, but he always was a chaser.
"Scu gave him a great ride. I've always believed that you've got to have the jockey. Carol used to say I was married to Scu. I was on the phone to him all the time, talking about what we did wrong and what we did right. That's what it's all about. You've got to have an understanding and you've got to believe in your jockey."
Peter Scudamore wins the 1991 Rehearsal Chase at Chepstow on the remarkable Carvill's Hill
Peter Scudamore wins the 1991 Rehearsal Chase at Chepstow on the remarkable Carvill's Hill
Later that year, Pipe got his hands on a true champion. Carvill's Hill arrived at Pond House with a mammoth reputation but, having fallen on his last start for Jim Dreaper, the first thing his new trainer did was to send him for a full MOT.
"I sent him to Bristol University to check him all over and they said he'd never race again. I was crying, 'Why do I get a champion and then I can't run him?'. Everything was wrong with him.
"I showed him to [renowned equine physiotherapist] Mary Bromiley and she was the one who won the races for me. 'Don't worry Martin, we'll rebreak him', she said. She started from scratch, long-reining him and schooling him. His back was wrong so she'd put weights on his back legs to try and balance him up. A lot of work went into him but you had to try."
The effort was well worth it. Carvill's Hill won the Rehearsal Chase by ten lengths on his first start for Pipe and followed up with one of the great weight-carrying performances in the Welsh National. That day in the Chepstow mud, he beat subsequent Grand National winner Party Politics by 20 lengths giving away lumps of weight.
"The Welsh National was a thrill. He was so far clear and you're just wondering, 'Will he last home?'. He was a great, big, galloping horse with a huge stride."
Carvill's Hill won the Irish Gold Cup by 15 lengths on his next start at Leopardstown and was even-money favourite to give Pipe his first win in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham. Harried for the lead by 150-1 outsider Golden Freeze, he made several serious mistakes, forcing him out of contention. He ended up walking across the line and never raced again.
"I was worried about taking him to Ireland because he had been their horse and I thought I wouldn't be welcome but they gave him a great cheer, which was really nice. We had some great fun in Ireland," says Pipe. "What happened in the Gold Cup was terrible, but it's history. He was finished after that."
The 79-year-old never did win the Gold Cup but in 1993 Granville Again became the first from Pond House to win one of the championship races at the festival when taking the Champion Hurdle, although his trainer is quick to deflect any praise in the direction of another pioneer.
"He was breaking blood vessels," Pipe recalls. "Michael Dickinson came down to the yard one day. We'd scoped him already and it was clear but Michael was very authoritative and said to scope him again. He was right, it showed a problem this time. Michael told me exactly what to do and said, 'If you follow that advice he'll win', and he was right.
"I believe most horses can make the running but he was one who stopped in front and he had to be held up. To win a championship race was good but I don't think it matters if you win a two-horse race or a Champion Hurdle. Winning repeatedly is what makes the phone ring."
Miinnehoma wins Grand National in colours of Freddie Starr
Miinnehoma wins the Grand National in the colours of Freddie Starr
Credit: Michael Cooper
In 1994, Pipe won the biggest race of all. Miinnehoma had already landed the Sun Alliance Chase two years earlier, but success in the Grand National made his trainer a household name.
"Freddie Starr phoned me and said he wanted me to train his horse," says Pipe. "The first thing he said was that he wanted to win the National. I said, 'He hasn't jumped yet, Freddie!'"
Miinnehoma was "playful" at home and had to be mounted in the lunging ring at Pond House because of his tendency to put his rider on the deck but he was as fit as a flea when he arrived at Aintree, with Richard Dunwoody taking a pull at the elbow as Miinnehoma came there swinging.
"He was fit, well and we knew he stayed, so we fancied him at Aintree," says Pipe. "We had a few quid on him and tipped him on the Pipeline. Richard was brilliant on him and, because Freddie didn't go to Aintree on the day, Mrs Pipe led him in and it was all super."
Only the next day did the magnitude of winning the world's most famous race dawn on Pipe.
"I went to London and I stepped over a road sweeper's broom and he put his hand out," he recalls. "I thought, 'I shouldn't have done that'. It was a bit rude of me, but the road sweeper looked at me and said, 'You're Mr Pipe, you won the National'. It was lovely to be recognised."
Two years later Pipe and his staff pulled off a true masterstroke when Cyborgo landed the Stayers' Hurdle on his first start since finishing fourth in the same race the previous year.
"He kept having problems and I couldn't get him right," he explains. "I was aggravated and under pressure to get him fit for the Stayers'.
"He was starting to come right and I took him to Warwick for a gallop about three weeks before Cheltenham. We took four or five with us and I led him up myself. After that piece of work I knew he was spot on. It was a terrific thrill to win first time out. It was a good ride by Bridgey [David Bridgwater] and the result of hard work by everybody. It was one of the most satisfying wins."
Make A Stand:
Make A Stand: a remarkable front-runner who won the Champion Hurdle
Credit: Pat Healy
The same sentiment applies to his second Champion Hurdle winner. Make A Stand was plucked from a claimer on the Flat and transformed into a winning machine at Pond House. Typical for a Pipe-trained runner, he gave his rivals no respite from the front as he ran up a sequence of five straight wins in the 1996-97 season, culminating with a five-length success in the Champion.
"He won a mile-and-a-half claimer around Leicester and we claimed him for £8,000 out of Henry Candy's yard," says Pipe, studying the handwritten form card containing every detail of Make A Stand's remarkable career.
"Peter Deal called me up and said, 'You've claimed my horse'. I said, 'Sorry, but it's within the rules'. I told him he could buy the horse back for what I paid, as long as I can train him. There were a few of them in the horse but only Peter wanted to buy back in and he took half.
"I sent a letter out to eight or ten owners offering them the other half for £4,000 but nobody wanted it so I had it. Carol was moaning like hell at me but in the space of a year he won a quarter of a million and she spent the lot!
"When he jumped, he quickened up, and nobody could lay up with him. I'd told AP [McCoy] to make all but you've got to be a good judge of the pace to do that. AP always believed what I told him. He used to tell the conditional riders that if I told him to ride a horse off the end of a cliff, then he would."
Make A Stand won unchallenged at Cheltenham and Pipe enjoyed success at seven of the next eight festivals before he shocked the racing world in 2005 by announcing his retirement, immediately handing the reins at Pond House to his son David. He remains the winningmost trainer of all time over jumps and perhaps the most influential too, having revolutionised the way horses were trained.
"I was delighted to get the CBE and I hope I've helped all the horses," he concludes. "It must be easier for the horse if you get them fit first of all. It helps them last longer, I believe.
"I still can't sleep at night for thinking – thinking what we can do differently. I'm fanatical about it and have so many ideas. There's always something new . . ."
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The Horses Who Made Me
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The Horses Who Made Me
'There must have been 50 bookmakers in all and we had 1,000 to 30 with them all. We won fortunes, we won the lottery!'
Lewis Porteous catches up with legendary trainer Martin Pipe
author image
Lewis Porteous
Reporter
Martin Pipe: legendary trainer admired by Amy Murphy
Martin Pipe: "It was only a seller but we thought he was a good thing'"
Before the horses who shaped the career of a true pioneer came the inspiration behind it. Martin Pipe remembers his father as a tough taskmaster, but there is no disguising his admiration for the individual who had the biggest influence on his life.
David Pipe snr was a self-made man who went from running an illegal bookmakers in his home to selling a chain of 40 betting shops to William Hill. He proved that anything was possible and, when he told his son that there was "no such word as 'can't'", Pipe took it literally.
He had every intention of following his father into the bookmaking profession but when the family's shops were sold and he was forbidden from working for the new owners by his dad, he had no choice but to change direction.
"I thought I'd ride," says Pipe, who had no background in the saddle but was never put off by inexperience. "I was absolutely clueless and totally useless but I managed to get a licence to ride in point-to-points."
His career as a jockey proved short-lived, thanks in no small part to a horse called Lorac – the name of Pipe's wife Carol spelt backwards – who gave his rider a horrible fall at Taunton that left him with a broken femur and in traction for months.
While he was laid up in Bridgwater Hospital, Carol was in nearby Taunton giving birth to their son David and it didn't take long for the stricken jockey to realise riding wasn't his calling in life.
"I managed to ride a point-to-point winner afterwards but I was no good and that was it," he says. "That injury taught me an awful lot. When I started training I always tried to get the horses to jump for the lads who ride them. The horses have got to have practice, practice and more practice."
Out of the proceeds of his betting shops, Pipe's father bought a derelict West Country farm that would become the most powerful training centre in Britain.
Pipe's uncle was the first to train there, while there was a time when greyhounds were the most successful four-legged animals based at Pond House, but when Martin took control he began to transform not only its fortunes but the way racehorses were trained.
"It was trial and error because I knew nothing at all," he says of his formative years training. "The first horse I bought cost £300 at the sales and I thought it was a bargain. I didn't know it had a bowed tendon because I didn't know anything at the time but it's the best thing I ever did. Dad went berserk, but it taught me. I read veterinary books and everything to see what I could do with it. It all evolved from there."
Pipe was by no means an overnight success. In fact he was conspicuously unsuccessful to start with, but he was desperate to educate himself, prepared to adapt and intrigued to try something new.
Top of the list: Baron Blakeney's 1981 Triumph success is immortalised on Pipe's festival honours board
Martin Pipe next to his festival honours board at his home in Somerset
Credit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)
His first winner was Hit Parade in a selling hurdle at Taunton in May 1975, partnered by Len Lungo. Unremarkable at the time, it turned out to be the first of 4,183.
"Hit Parade was bought out of a seller," Pipe remembers. "He wasn't the best of jumpers and we decided he was going to lead and go around the inside. It was the first hurdle race on the card, so we went around and loosened all the hurdles on the inside before the race.
"I had £1,000 on him. It was only a seller and he was a 7-4 shot but we thought he was a good thing. It was fantastic when he won and I thought, 'I'm a trainer now'.
"He taught me a lot. He had terrible joints so we never trotted him and put cold water and God knows what on his legs. We'd spend hours doing that to look after him. From then onwards, I never used to trot horses."
With no preconceived notions or received wisdom, there was nothing to stop Pipe pushing the boundaries. He broke the mould in the mornings and began working his horses up short, steep gallops to improve their fitness. He also built his own laboratory at Pond House, giving him access to rapid test results, and he made sure his horses swam regularly.
Pipe found a winning recipe but never stopped fine-tuning it. He was crowned champion trainer 15 times in all, although championships could not have been further from his thoughts at the start.
"I thought If I win all the sellers in a season I'll have 50 winners and that was my ambition. All the horses we bought were cheap and all I wanted was to win the sellers."
In the end he won everything from the Champion Hurdle to the Grand National but it was victory in a seller at Haydock in 1980 that he still describes as the "best race I ever won".
"We had an almighty gamble," he recalls with a good old chuckle of the Rod Millman-ridden Carrie Ann. "I'd schooled him around a few racecourses and it was a donkeys' race. There were about 20 runners and he was fit.
"It was only the second time Chester Barnes had been to the races. Carrie Ann was available at 33-1 on course, and I told Chester go and have 2,000 to 60 with the first bookmaker. Chester comes back and says he hasn't altered the odds, so I told him to go in again. There must have been 50 bookmakers in all and we had 1,000 to 30 with them all. We won fortunes, we won the lottery!"
The real genius of the punt was backing him off course but at Tote prices. "£20 to win on the Tote paid £4,916," he says after consulting his extensive records. "They put limits on Tote betting after that but we backed him in every betting shop around here on the Tote and Dad backed it with every credit bookmaker in England.
"We had a bit of an argument the day before because Dad was asking why I was going to Haydock. 'Go to Taunton and save petrol money,' he said. It was 244 miles to Haydock but he was just winding me up and checking that he really was a certainty.
"He told Chester to put £5 on the Tote at the track, no more, to make sure there was a dividend. We forgot to pick that up!"
The following year provided Pipe with his first Cheltenham Festival success courtesy of a 66-1 shot who upset the British banker in the Triumph Hurdle.
From the clouds: Baron Blakeney (yellow and red, Paul Leach) begins to overhaul Broadsword (Peter Scudamore) up the Cheltenham hill
Baron Blakeney and Paul Leach (yellow and red) begin to overhaul Broadsword and Peter Scudamore up the Cheltenham hill
Credit: Gerry Cranham
"He was a box walker," is his initial memory of Baron Blakeney. "I thought, 'I'll stop that', and put 50 tyres in his stable so he couldn't move, but then he'd pull out lame. My theory was that he was only walking his box to keep himself loose and by putting in the tyres I stopped him from being able to do that, so the tyres soon came out.
"He used to swim and swim and I had to run him where his owner Bob Wheatley said. If it was rock-hard today he ran, if it was bottomless tomorrow he ran, because that's what he said.
"He was rated about ninth best in The Sporting Life, so he had a squeak, and I always say if he'd been trained by Fred Winter he'd have been 14-1 but, being trained by an idiot who hadn't won anything, we got 66-1.
"He beat Broadsword, who was a certainty. Everyone thought he was a good thing ridden by Peter Scudamore but we beat him. It was fantastic and that was my first big winner, which must have helped me."
He was certainly making progress but it was another seven years before Pipe was back in the number one spot at Cheltenham and Sondrio's win in the 1989 Supreme Novices' Hurdle was the one which opened the festival floodgates.
"He was an American-bred and had terrible joints," says his trainer. "Scu was offered the ride on one of the favourites for Paul Green instead and I said it was fine for him to ride.
"I told Jonothan Lower he was riding and told him to school it, school it and school it! On the day he went off and made all. There's a picture of Scu hitting the ground after he came off at the third hurdle. He later told me the ambulance staff got to him, saw him hitting the ground, and said, 'You're in agony'. But all that happened was he had heard the result and he was pounding the ground in anger."
Pipe ended up with 34 Cheltenham Festival winners in all but Rolling Ball, owned by Stan Clarke and winner of the 1991 Sun Alliance Chase, was one who played a special part in his ascent.
"He opened up the French angle, I think," says his trainer. "I claimed a lot of horses from France and they all won. Rolling Ball only made his chase debut at Warwick in February and won the Sun Alliance on his second start over fences, but he always was a chaser.
"Scu gave him a great ride. I've always believed that you've got to have the jockey. Carol used to say I was married to Scu. I was on the phone to him all the time, talking about what we did wrong and what we did right. That's what it's all about. You've got to have an understanding and you've got to believe in your jockey."
Peter Scudamore wins the 1991 Rehearsal Chase at Chepstow on the remarkable Carvill's Hill
Peter Scudamore wins the 1991 Rehearsal Chase at Chepstow on the remarkable Carvill's Hill
Later that year, Pipe got his hands on a true champion. Carvill's Hill arrived at Pond House with a mammoth reputation but, having fallen on his last start for Jim Dreaper, the first thing his new trainer did was to send him for a full MOT.
"I sent him to Bristol University to check him all over and they said he'd never race again. I was crying, 'Why do I get a champion and then I can't run him?'. Everything was wrong with him.
"I showed him to [renowned equine physiotherapist] Mary Bromiley and she was the one who won the races for me. 'Don't worry Martin, we'll rebreak him', she said. She started from scratch, long-reining him and schooling him. His back was wrong so she'd put weights on his back legs to try and balance him up. A lot of work went into him but you had to try."
The effort was well worth it. Carvill's Hill won the Rehearsal Chase by ten lengths on his first start for Pipe and followed up with one of the great weight-carrying performances in the Welsh National. That day in the Chepstow mud, he beat subsequent Grand National winner Party Politics by 20 lengths giving away lumps of weight.
"The Welsh National was a thrill. He was so far clear and you're just wondering, 'Will he last home?'. He was a great, big, galloping horse with a huge stride."
Carvill's Hill won the Irish Gold Cup by 15 lengths on his next start at Leopardstown and was even-money favourite to give Pipe his first win in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham. Harried for the lead by 150-1 outsider Golden Freeze, he made several serious mistakes, forcing him out of contention. He ended up walking across the line and never raced again.
"I was worried about taking him to Ireland because he had been their horse and I thought I wouldn't be welcome but they gave him a great cheer, which was really nice. We had some great fun in Ireland," says Pipe. "What happened in the Gold Cup was terrible, but it's history. He was finished after that."
The 79-year-old never did win the Gold Cup but in 1993 Granville Again became the first from Pond House to win one of the championship races at the festival when taking the Champion Hurdle, although his trainer is quick to deflect any praise in the direction of another pioneer.
"He was breaking blood vessels," Pipe recalls. "Michael Dickinson came down to the yard one day. We'd scoped him already and it was clear but Michael was very authoritative and said to scope him again. He was right, it showed a problem this time. Michael told me exactly what to do and said, 'If you follow that advice he'll win', and he was right.
"I believe most horses can make the running but he was one who stopped in front and he had to be held up. To win a championship race was good but I don't think it matters if you win a two-horse race or a Champion Hurdle. Winning repeatedly is what makes the phone ring."
Miinnehoma wins Grand National in colours of Freddie Starr
Miinnehoma wins the Grand National in the colours of Freddie Starr
Credit: Michael Cooper
In 1994, Pipe won the biggest race of all. Miinnehoma had already landed the Sun Alliance Chase two years earlier, but success in the Grand National made his trainer a household name.
"Freddie Starr phoned me and said he wanted me to train his horse," says Pipe. "The first thing he said was that he wanted to win the National. I said, 'He hasn't jumped yet, Freddie!'"
Miinnehoma was "playful" at home and had to be mounted in the lunging ring at Pond House because of his tendency to put his rider on the deck but he was as fit as a flea when he arrived at Aintree, with Richard Dunwoody taking a pull at the elbow as Miinnehoma came there swinging.
"He was fit, well and we knew he stayed, so we fancied him at Aintree," says Pipe. "We had a few quid on him and tipped him on the Pipeline. Richard was brilliant on him and, because Freddie didn't go to Aintree on the day, Mrs Pipe led him in and it was all super."
Only the next day did the magnitude of winning the world's most famous race dawn on Pipe.
"I went to London and I stepped over a road sweeper's broom and he put his hand out," he recalls. "I thought, 'I shouldn't have done that'. It was a bit rude of me, but the road sweeper looked at me and said, 'You're Mr Pipe, you won the National'. It was lovely to be recognised."
Two years later Pipe and his staff pulled off a true masterstroke when Cyborgo landed the Stayers' Hurdle on his first start since finishing fourth in the same race the previous year.
"He kept having problems and I couldn't get him right," he explains. "I was aggravated and under pressure to get him fit for the Stayers'.
"He was starting to come right and I took him to Warwick for a gallop about three weeks before Cheltenham. We took four or five with us and I led him up myself. After that piece of work I knew he was spot on. It was a terrific thrill to win first time out. It was a good ride by Bridgey [David Bridgwater] and the result of hard work by everybody. It was one of the most satisfying wins."
Make A Stand:
Make A Stand: a remarkable front-runner who won the Champion Hurdle
Credit: Pat Healy
The same sentiment applies to his second Champion Hurdle winner. Make A Stand was plucked from a claimer on the Flat and transformed into a winning machine at Pond House. Typical for a Pipe-trained runner, he gave his rivals no respite from the front as he ran up a sequence of five straight wins in the 1996-97 season, culminating with a five-length success in the Champion.
"He won a mile-and-a-half claimer around Leicester and we claimed him for £8,000 out of Henry Candy's yard," says Pipe, studying the handwritten form card containing every detail of Make A Stand's remarkable career.
"Peter Deal called me up and said, 'You've claimed my horse'. I said, 'Sorry, but it's within the rules'. I told him he could buy the horse back for what I paid, as long as I can train him. There were a few of them in the horse but only Peter wanted to buy back in and he took half.
"I sent a letter out to eight or ten owners offering them the other half for £4,000 but nobody wanted it so I had it. Carol was moaning like hell at me but in the space of a year he won a quarter of a million and she spent the lot!
"When he jumped, he quickened up, and nobody could lay up with him. I'd told AP [McCoy] to make all but you've got to be a good judge of the pace to do that. AP always believed what I told him. He used to tell the conditional riders that if I told him to ride a horse off the end of a cliff, then he would."
Make A Stand won unchallenged at Cheltenham and Pipe enjoyed success at seven of the next eight festivals before he shocked the racing world in 2005 by announcing his retirement, immediately handing the reins at Pond House to his son David. He remains the winningmost trainer of all time over jumps and perhaps the most influential too, having revolutionised the way horses were trained.
"I was delighted to get the CBE and I hope I've helped all the horses," he concludes. "It must be easier for the horse if you get them fit first of all. It helps them last longer, I believe.
"I still can't sleep at night for thinking – thinking what we can do differently. I'm fanatical about it and have so many ideas. There's always something new . . ."
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Replies: 40
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Copy and paste on phone is hardly work on something this Length..great read though.
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Thanks Aberdonia. That was indeed a great read about a remarkable man.
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What a brilliant read aberdonia, very much enjoyed.
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Fabulous tks vm
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What? ^^^^^^
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Thanks very much.
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Nice to see the uncle get a mention. He rarely gets referenced in the Pipe story, but rode 16 winners, and trained for 7 years. John Francome rode a few winners for him.
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What a spoiler Golden Freeze was, was still in contention when being pulled up. It was job done and let's get out of here.
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Good stuff
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I don't think Jenny cared for Martin too much.
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aberdonia is fast becoming one of the more interesting posters on here,i know posts have been made for many years,but lately its noticable how sensible polite and what is an enjoyable read posted on this forum.
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Not that I’m one to blow my own trumpet.
I beat Chester Barnes at table tennis,camber sands holiday park,in the 70s,I was 10-12 years old. This was all pre his pipe involvement. Got a photo somewhere in the loft. I knew he was shrewd,cos he asked,what do you fancy on Saturday mate. I said,phone the phone line,think that’s what give him the idea. |
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Very clever trainer and pushed the rules to the limit. I remember a race at Exeter when a horse I owned a 25% share in called Jefferies was fancied in a 2.4 mile hurdle and Pipe had Dominions Dream in there ridden by a 7lb claimer. The first time the starter called them in, Dominions Dream was 5 lengths ahead of the rest and at full gallop as they crossed the start but the starter called them back. Second time the same thing happened and the starter let it go. DD was 12 lengths clear by the time they had gone 100 yards and beat us 2 lengths. That was the sort of thing they were doing all the time in 1990s and they got away with murder.
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Great article, I read it this morning. Re Make a Stand, I wonder what Pipe's response would have been if Peter Deal had said I'll buy it back for the full price. I wonder how many of those £4k share letters actually got posted. Next time I see Rod Millman, going to ask him about Carrie Ann - I can just see Chester saying incredulously, "They haven't changed the price"
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His son, Lester...wonder why Chester named him that, is a youtube golfer....
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https://youtu.be/uuxUb-s9Zfo?si=Fdf7aJf0DD3T1YRi
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Who can ever forget Corporal Clinger. An old favourite of mine.
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My abiding memory of Martin Pipe, is novice hurdlers being 25 lengths clear very quickly under Scu and coming home unchallenged.....layers would be losing fortunes if he was starting now, before the lesson was learnt...
I was a big fan of Pridwell...Did me many a fine turn. |
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just remembered another favourite, High Knowle. Hopefully ive spelt it right.
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It works both ways, sageform. Back in 1989 the Wonnacotts had a lunatic hurdler called Sakr, trained by Mrs J Wonnacott and ridden by Derek Wonnacoot.
The problem was the horse had only two gears: handbrake-on and turbo. Time and again it refused to line up, until Derek Wonnacott seemed to realize that the key was to charge the horse at the tapes with the choke out, and basically dare the starter not to release the tapes. This meant the horse used to nick literally half a furlong at the start sometimes, including one afternoon at Newton Abbot, where the Pipe/Scu combination had apparently been planning much the same manoeuvre themselves with a horse called Crofter's Nest, which was having its first run for MC Pipe. Cue much complaining and arm-waving from Pipe and Scu in the unsaddling enclosure afterwards, with Sakr having basically maintained the half-furlong advantage for the whole race. https://www.racingpost.com/results/39/newton-abbot/1989-09-08/31109 |
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screaming, you live by the sword..... I am full of admiration for what Martin Pipe achieved but don't assume that it was all done in a "gentlemanly" way. Scu was of course a huge part of it as was David Bridgwater for a briefer period and then the matchless McCoy. Scu was a very matter of fact jockey who was not the best stylist but used his brain. He managed to get Meister, my first decent horse, to win a chase at Worcester but just when the 6 owners involved were expecting him to be smiling broadly, he was frowning as he dismounted and told us that it was never going to make a chaser as it couldn't jump. He did manage to get him round to be second at Hexham but then for whatever reason we switched to Simon Sherwood who managed to win 3 more chases on the horse. Simon was totally fearless and a worthy champion.
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Screaming, that 6/5 fav beaten 93 lengths after chasing Sakr to the sixth.
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It was an official 28.5 lengths, sparrow (have another look). But in reality it was indeed closer to 93 lengths (official distances were a bit of a guess in those days).
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Yes screaming, I mistakenly added all the figures together.
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We've all done it, sparrow. I've never got used to cumulative distances in the form book.
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There will never be another to match or get near Pipes achievements……(punting)….
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 Pipe had another go, got beat again. |
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Got within 3 lengths next time..Sakr was a bit of a win machine for all it's kinks.
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Sageform: I've had a look at my betting records for that race at Exeter where your horse Jefferies was 6/5 fav. You'll be no doubt delighted to know I had £1,000 to £60 as a saver on the winner, just in case a Pipe horse went and did something like that.
Mind you, I only won £315 on the race, as I backed six horses in total against Jefferies! I must have thought 6/5 about a J A B Old favourite was a terrible price. I got my comeuppance a couple of months later though, when your horse won at Taunton. I ended up having £309 on the Bill Turner-trained third in that race, as I kept following the price out, plus a hundred tenners on the Bridgwater-ridden rag (pulled up). So, at the end of it, taking on your horse left me £4 in the red. It's never been an easy game, this punting lark. |
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And amusingly, when Pipe's did beat Sakr, another one of Wonnacott's did them both.
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Is the jockey Millie Wonnacott from the same family?
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Sakr had been with Dick Hern (I think) as a youngster. Before the move to the Wonnacotts it went to Paddy Butler, who, in an interview with the Weekender, told the world that this was the horse which would finally put him on the map.
It didn't. |
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Sparrow, we took a look at that question a few years ago:
https://community.betfair.com/horse_racing/go/thread/view/94102/31609341/millie?liveView=0 |
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sparrow 09 Oct 24 12:01
Thanks screaming for the link, trouble was when I looked it up the name David was mentioned as her father which led me to wonder if he was an uncle or similar. |
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that's how exchanges have changed the game
NOT MANY WOULD CHASE A PRICE OUT today,they,d decide someone new something they didn't |
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screaming, which one of Jefferies 4 wins at Taunton was that? He ran there once per season, novice hurdle, handicap hurdle, novice chase and handicap chase and won every time. His only other win was a handicap hurdle at Towcester. He had a few seconds (including last of two finishers at Ascot which was a bigger prize than any of the wins) and tended to pull himself up in front. I read what you say about Jim Old but he was a costly man to take on in his pomp. Nigel Dempster had a horse with Jim called My Purple Prose and he rashly had a bet that it would win 5 races in a season. Jim delivered the bet. Martin Pipe and McCoy beat us again at Leicester with Ask The Butler.
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Reading it again it was the handicap hurdle when Bill Turner trained the third Fawley Flyer for David Chown who I happened to know quite well.
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screaming - Sakr was with Neville Callaghan as a 2yo. Had all duck eggs against his name for him. Reappeared at Brighton as a 3yo for Butler (same owner). Seemed to be a NR quite often for him.
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