National hopes leading way after quiet year at Pond House

A Cheltenham Festival winner at the tail end of the year can paper over a few cracks in a moderate season, so David Pipe was grateful for the success of Un Temps Pour Tout in the Ultima Handicap Chase. It didn't, however, convince him that all was as it should be at Pond House.

With 59 winners representing the yard's lowest score since 2005 and prize-money dipping below the £1 million mark for the first time in five years, there is plainly work to be done but the trainer is geared up for the challenge.

"A win at the festival is important to every yard and every trainer will tell you the same," he says. "It's all about winning, be it a big race or a small race, but a big race is noticed more and that helps. It's the kind of thing that gives you hope for the following season but it's a very tough world out there and at the end of a year like that you just have to regroup and do better, like my school report used to say. All you can do is keep working at it.