Point to point
Scrapper is happy to be watching the sport again after the flu break
Scrapper happy to be reporting action again after the flu break
LARKHILL FEBRUARY 17
Pointing returned after a couple of weekends under the weather, three inches of snow followed by equine flu. After a six-day shutdown, the BHA allowed the resumption of racing but laid down a number of conditions. The one that stops any horse, which hasn’t been vaccinated against the disease in the last six months from running is causing the amateur game the biggest problem.
Most Pointers are given their vaccination at the end of the previous season in June, just before they are turned out in their field for the summer.
The headache for the organisers of this weekend’s nine meetings was how many horses were going to be eligible to run. The entries were closed ten hours before the authorities made their announcement.
It hasn’t been easy for us punters either. On Thursday I was convinced I’d be at Horseheath yesterday and Charing today, I’ve wound up going to Ascot and here.
The Coronation Gold Cup was horribly disappointing; it attracted just the three runners. What should have been one of the highlights of the season turned out to be a stroll on the plains for the long odds-on Monsieur Gibraltar.
The committee’s generous offer of free entrance for spectators drew a large crowd and, barring the onesided big race, they were served up some fine sport.
Very unusually a newcomer, Tom and Sophie Lacey’s Tea Clipper, won the Restricted. The handsome gelding, sent off the evens favourite, has an impressive gallop but his jumping left a lot to be desired. The bay’s next appearance is likely to be in a sales ring. If so, rider Tommie O’Brien is due a hearty slap on the back from connections for getting Tea Clipper around, this win will have done wonders for the price he’ll fetch.
Andy Llewellyn gave Net Work Rouge a brilliantly judged ride in the Novice Riders, waiting in the rear before launching a long late run, overhauling leader Crown Theatre way after the last. I watched the race with Michael Harris, one of the winner’s owners. “We were worried that this staying track wouldn’t suit him,” he told me.
I’ve always argued this isn’t a stayer’s course. Plenty are deceived because you constantly see far too many jockeys kick far too soon here, emptying their mounts of sufficient oxygen for the climb, gentle as it is, to the line.
Zac Baker and Martin McIntyre ride Larkhill as well as anyone, the pair treated us to wonderful tussle in the Conditions Maiden race, battling shoulder to shoulder up to and over the last. On the flat, Draft Pick found plenty for Baker while the frustrating Ballyjim threw away his chance by hanging left very late on.
The wife joked the ‘conditions’ for the race were all horses had to have more letters than numbers in their form. The contest may have lacked quality but deservedly got the biggest roar of the day.
Not surprisingly, the number of runners were low at all the weekend’s meetings but only at Wadebridge were they disastrous. The Cornwall track finished their card with a match, a walkover and a further match. Tom Malone’s The Last But One beat only one in winning both the Men’s and Ladies Opens.
BARBURY FEBRUARY 23
The sun had burnt off the thick morning fog well before racing got underway, giving us a warm bright afternoon that felt totally out of place in February.
This was a card that had to be postponed for a fortnight because of the flu shutdown. Rearranged meetings are rarely successful. There were few food stands and just seven bookmakers, but they were more than enough to satisfy a small crowd.
The lack of spectators may well have been down, in part, to the programme starting with two divisions of a Bumper. Flat racing is a complete anathema to most Point enthusiasts. Many swore they’d boycott here and go to Chaddesley Corbett or, like the wife, Kempton instead.
Both heats attracted big fields, Equus Gold sprinted away with the first and Bird On The Wire got the better of a three-way bob in the second. The pair pocketed £350 purses; the two Maidens each carried a first prize of £200. That seems to be the wrong way round to me. I
realise the flat races are sponsored but this is a sport for jump horses.
Punters had difficulties deciding who should head the market in the three runner Novice Rider’s race. The veteran Flicka’s Witness (7/4) made every yard, looking gamer up the home straight than the 6/4 joint favourites Earth moves and Judge John Deed.
Phil York gave Streets Of London a peach of a ride in the 2m4f Maiden. The horse had looked a right rascal when throwing away a similar race at Cockle barrow last month. Phil gave him no opportunity to be obstreperous again. He kept his mount covered up before delivering the Tim Underwood trained gelding late, pinching the lead and the trophy on the run-in.
The horse to take from the contest and the day was the runner-up, newcomer Bespoke Cave. The start was a farce, the starter dropped his flag and nobody moved, it took fully thirty seconds before the field strolled passed the official’s rostrum. Jack Andrews bit the bullet and became the reluctant leader on the debutant. The scopey bay, although green, jumped superbly. He was caught flat-footed by the winner in a sprint finish and will come on a bundle for this experience.
Even money favourite Sonne of presenting set out to make all in the Mixed Open, but some sloppy jumping hindered his efforts. Crossing the fourth last, he relinquished the lead to Templebraden. The new leader immediately found himself shadowed by Fly West, travelling ominously well. Race fitness told after the second last. Templebraden quickened; Fly West, making his seasonal debut, blew up.
Nobody does it better returned from a 20-month absence to triumph in the Open Maiden. This didn’t look a hot race even before the fancied duo Geordie and Always Sunny attempted to bring the fences home with them.
GODSTONE MARCH 3
Today marks a turning point in the season for me. Up until now a day’s racing has meant a trip of at least ninety miles each way, from now until June there is a meeting within an hour’s drive almost every weekend.
Like most areas, the South East’s population of qualified horses is shrinking; it is also ageing alarmingly. The racecard illustrated this perfectly - the 9yo and up Conditions race received 24 entries while the Maiden got just ten.
A day of wind and rain meant the crowd, such as it was, consisted of only diehards and the deranged.
Excitable Island again impressed when making all in the aforementioned contest for the more elderly equines. Glint Of Steel, who for six seasons has been the area’s star, tried valiantly to reel the leader in but was comfortably held at bay up the home straight. The local hero was off the bridle for most of the journey and now a veteran, his best days look to be beyond him.
The winner’s trainer Nigel Padfield has placed the gelding brilliantly, this was his ninth win in thirteen Point starts. He has been kept clear of Opens, despite being good enough to win a Hunter Chase at Cheltenham last spring. Excitable Island turned out to be the first leg of a treble for champion rider Gina Andrews. Win number two came when she steered the oddson Kalabaloo to success in the Mixed Open. This was the only winner of the day to come from off the pace. After initially being held up, the mare kicked four clear over the last ditch, she appeared to be holding off the challenge of Cloudy Bob when that one took an absolute purler two out.
Gina completed her hat-trick on Indirocco in the Open maiden. The chestnut had been placed over hurdles and fences under Rules for Dan Skelton and relished this drop in grade. The 6yo led from the get go, gradually burning off his rivals with some bold leaps. He was still travelling well when his two nearest pursuers departed four out. I like him, in the end he only beat one other finisher so some may crab the form but I am certain he’ll prove to be a horse worth following.
Another progressive young horse to go into my notebook was The Unmen
tionable, who strode right away to win the Restricted. He now faces a step up in class but showed more than enough here to indicate he’ll cope.
For over two miles he had been hassled for the lead by Almost There until she stopped abruptly climbing out of the dip. She hasn’t stood much racing but obviously has ability. The mare was cantered back, so not injured, and there was no sign she’d burst, just keep an eye out for her. I couldn’t back her next time out but I’d be very be very reluctant to lump on one with her in opposition.
Kashmir Peak made every yard in the Novice Riders. He looked as if he’d come on a bit for this, which probably explains why he was allowed to go off odds against despite having clearly the best form. He was holding off the challenge of Adept Approach when that one crashed out two out.
With the wind and rain gaining strength, the diehards had had enough by the time the three runners went down for the Conditions race which closed the day’s amusements. Florella finally kept a trophy for the home team; invaders from foreign areas had plundered the silverware from the first five contests.
If there had been a further prize, awarded to the ‘connections showing the most initiative’, it would surely have gone to the Phillips-Hill’s. On arrival, it appeared they had forgotten to pack Catching On’s sheepskin noseband; a rolled up hand towel did for a replacement.
KINGSTON BLOUNT MARCH 9
I was at Sandown yesterday for their Military Gold Cup card. In the company of a gentleman – tall, upright, sixties, wearing tweed – I watched the horses for the handicap hurdle for amateur riders with a military background gather in the paddock.
I recalled the time when the race opened Imperial Hurdle day. “It was sponsored by Lloyds Bank, Tim Thomson Jones always won it.”
“My memories go back further!” he said “A trainer phoned me up and offered me a ride. I told him I couldn’t. ‘What do you mean you can’t? You’re not booked for someone else are you?’
“I told him I wasn’t qualified, I hadn’t served. ‘Didn’t you do cadets at school?’ I said no, I did Latin. The trainer growled and slammed the phone down.”
You can wear out a good pair of binoculars at Kingston Blount. You need them for the sport of course; between races, it’s all too tempting to study the panoramic view. Standing here on the western slopes of the Chiltern Hills you can see most of Oxfordshire. If you scan from Christmas Common, furthest left, you look over Goring, Abingdon and Didcot to Oxford and then carry on around to Chinnor.
Train your glasses skyward and you can marvel at the red kites soaring on the thermals.
If the temperature had been just five degrees warmer, the day would have been perfect, good quality horses
provided the gathering with some gripping racing.
I think there is an unwritten rule that states to qualify for the ride of the year the horse has to win. If I am correct, it means Zac Baker’s exertions on Templebraden will go unrewarded. Sent off short priced favourite for the Men’s Open, the gelding sulked after losing out on the frantic five-way dash to lead at the first. Zac spent two miles pushing, kicking, shouting and cajoling in an effort to get his mount to pick up the bit. Racing downhill along the back, Templebraden grudgingly began to play the game. As the partnership began to pick off rivals, they met trouble at all of the three fences along the stretch with horses hanging one way or jumping the other. Zac was back to shoveling on the coal, they nearly got on terms with the winner Man Of Steel at the last but couldn’t get by.
Dabinett Moon and Brackloon High spent the entire Ladies’ Open arguing who had the right to lead. Three out Dabinett Moon put his foot down, however his rival was determined to have the final say and rallied, rousing the crowd to join the debate, but failed by three-quarters of a length to get the last word in.
Salvatore stretched his winning run to six when coming home in front of his nine rivals in the Conditions. It’s possible to pick holes in the form, he was followed home by the veteran Gallery Exhibition and Hawkhurst, who’s never the first to roll his sleeves up, but he is very straight forward, game and is improving.
Another progressive horse is Timmie Roe, who scooted away with the Intermediate. He is now unbeaten in three runs for his owner/trainer Tim Underwood. The bay hasn’t finished winning; he looks Open class.
The clearest cut winner on the card was ironically also the longest priced. Love you to the moon, the 14/1 outsider for the Restricted galloped and jumped the opposition into the tacky ground. This was not the strongest of contests. It must have taken his connections ages to get him dressed; he wore cheekpieces, a hood and a tongue tie.
Both divisions of the Maiden were thrillers. Will Biddick needed all of his strength, guile and experience to get Silver Louna home in the second heat after being badly squeezed up on the run to the last.
In the first division, all eyes were on the newcomer The Odissey, who was sent off long odds-on. He had been touted as a potential star for a few weeks and stood out in the paddock. The Phillip Rowley debutant looked green going down to meet the starter and positively verdant leaving him. He lost out by just a short head to R Bren on the line. The 4yo will grow out physically and grow up mentally in time; he is very much a horse to follow.
Be lucky.