By his own admission, Martin Pipe ‘never, ever, wanted to be a trainer.’ However, with his brief, less-than-prolific career as an amateur rider cut short by a broken thigh in 1972, Pipe did, indeed, turn his attention to training at a then-derelict farm in Nicholashayne, near Wellington, Somerset two years later. Reflecting on those early days, he once told the ‘Racing Post’, ‘I didn’t know anything about training when I started, I didn’t have a clue.’
After a slow, nay tortoiselike, start, Pipe first attracted the attention of the wider racing public when, in 1981, he saddled his first Cheltenham Festival winner, Baron Blakeney, ridden by Paul Leach, in the Triumph Hurdle. Belying odds of 66/1, Baron Blakeney made relentless progress from the final flight to collar the 7/4 favourite, Broadsword, trained by David Nicholson and ridden by Peter Scudamore, in the closing stages, landing a gamble in the process.
The rest, as they say, is history. Pipe would win the National Hunt Trainers’ Championship for the first in 1988/89, with an eye-watering 208 winners. In the next 17 seasons until his retirement, due to ill health, in April, 2006, he would relinquish the trainers’ title just three times, to David Nicholson in 1993/94 and 1994/95 and to Paul Nicholls (who was winning his first title) in 2005/06.
Unremarkably, Pipe still holds the record for the most trainers’ titles (15) and the most consecutive titles (10) in National Hunt history.
Indeed, his revolutionary, scientific approach to training, coupled with a knack for placing his horses, led Pipe to a career total of 4,191 winners, including several high-profile winners on the Flat. It is difficult to argue with former stable jockey Peter Scudamore, who once said of Pipe, ‘Quite simply, he was a genius of his time.’