Born on February 7, 1973 in Wellington, Somerset, David Pipe is the son of 15-time Champion National Hunt Trainer Martin Pipe. Pipe Snr. announced his immediate retirement, due to ill-health, on the final day of the 2005/06 National Hunt season and Pipe Jnr. celebrated his first day as the master of Pond House Stables, in Nicholashayne, Somerset, with an across-the-card treble on May 9, 2006. David Pipe saddled his first winner in his own right, Standin Obligation, ridden by Timmy Murphy, in a novices’ chase at Kelso, followed by Wee Dinns, ridden by Tom Scudamore, in a handicap hurdle later on the same card and Papillon De Iena, ridden by Tony McCoy, in a handicap chase at Exeter later in the day.
In his inaugural season, David Pipe saddled 134 winners – still a career-high total, at the time of writing – from 767 runners, at a strike rate of 17%, and amassed £1.61 million in total prize money. Highlights included a notable double for Gaspara, who won the Imperial Cup at Sandown under Tony McCoy on March 10, 2007 and followed up in the Fred Winter Juvenile Novices’ Handicap Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival under Andrew Glassonbury three days later. In so doing, Gaspara became a first Festival winner for Pipe and collected a £75,000 bonus in the process.
Pipe has since added 14 more Cheltenham Festival winners to his career tally, but his most recent victories came courtesy of Un Temps Pour Tout, who won back-to-back renewals of the Ultima Handicap Chase under Tom Scudamore in 2016 and 2017. Away from the March showpiece, Pipe is probably best known for winning the 2008 Grand National with Comply Or Die, owned by the late David Johnson and ridden by Timmy Murphy, although he does also have 11 Grade 1 victories at home and abroad, to his name.
