Windbeneathmywings is out on his own at Ascot

David Pipe's Windbeneathmywings out of Cheltenham Festival

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Mon March 03, 2025 · 10M ago

Windbeneathmywings has been ruled out of the Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival after suffering a setback.

The five-year-old won two of his three starts in bumpers in Ireland before being sold to join David Pipe's yard in Somerset and made an immediate impression for the Pond House handler.

Sent off at 3/1 for a Listed contest at Ascot, Windbeneathmywings pulled right away from the field in impressive fashion to win by 14 lengths and catapult himself to the top of the ante-post markets for the Cheltenham Festival contest.

Earlier this week, Pipe told Sporting Life about Windbeneathmywings, saying: “He had some decent form in Ireland. Pat Flynn had always liked him and told Tom Malone that back in the summer, but Tom wanted to see a bit more from the horse.

“He had done some very nice pieces of work at home and we were hopeful he was going to run a big race at Ascot, but we didn’t imagine he would win like that. If he won a normal bumper like that we would have still been excited, but to have won a Listed bumper like that was breathtaking.

“He has obviously got a high cruising speed and gradually one-by-one the others on behind started coming off the bridle. We had won that race before with Eden du Houx and Israel Champ and I was standing in the same place with my father-in-law Pete watching it. We were like two young kids jumping over each other when he started sprinting clear.”

The atmosphere is now rather different with the news that every owner and trainer dreads and Pipe broke the news on X with the following statement:

"WINDBENEATHMYWINGS will not be running in the Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival next week. He has suffered a setback and so we will give him all the time he needs. It is a big blow for his owners and our team but our main priority is to get him right. "

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