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Sunday, April 25th 2010. Frank Sinatra’s brother could hardly sing a note; Mike Tyson’s sister couldn’t box at all; (oh alright and Michelangelo’s father couldn’t paint).
Not ‘facts’ but famous families rarely bear the weight of achievment in successive generations.
Martin Pipe won fifteen UK trainers’ championships more often than not saddling over 200 winners a season.
When his (more popular) son David took over four years ago there was much sympathy even apprehension for the boy's future.
We needn’t have worried. Pipe jnr landed his 100th winner on the last day of the British jumping season at Sandown on Saturday, courtesy of Mous Of Men and Ashkazar, signature French-breds – the kind of horse that made Pipe snr’s fortune (though some of them, Magnus most notoriously, cost him one).
Ashkazar (by Sadler’s Wells) finished fifth in Zambezi Sun’s Grand Prix de Paris three years ago for the Aga Khan.
Ashkazar has performed at a good level (without being high enough to provoke nosebleeds – either literal or metaphorical). Less may be have been expected of Mous of Men – he won on the flat at Le Mans for Guy Cherel but has had big absences since.
This Lord Of Men seven-year-old may be a late developer.
However it said something that the biggest cheer at Sandown (from where you can see the new Wembley stadium) came when it was heard Tottenham Hotspur had equalised against Manchester United.
Biggest cheers of the Punchestown week in Ireland came along with the Willie Mullins-trained victors Hurricane Fly and Quevega.
This pair were placed in Grivette’s Alain du Breil two years ago but when Quevega returned to the country of her birth for last year’s La Barka, she got a bloody nose (again not literally, she just wasn’t up to the job).
An AQPS daughter of Robin des Champs, Quevega is unlikely to be back in France.
Her objective is to take on another French champion domiciled in Britain, Big Buck's, for Cheltenham’s staying hurdle crown.
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Frogwatch, by Rolf Johnson 
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