A Cheltenhambound victor

DON BERSY’S victory in the inaugural Cotswold hunt race was his “prep run” for the Foxhunter at the Cheltenham Festival on Friday (18 March), which will be the very quirky nine-year-old’s final racecourse appearance.

He was ridden by his trainer, Ryan Potter, who said: “He either wins or he refuses to race. When he does jump off, he’s an unbelievable horse, and I love him to bits – he’s a real character.”

Ryan has taken an entirely different tack to Don Bersy’s training regime this year, hunting him with the Ledbury and team chasing him. But he hasn’t run in an “official” race since he refused to start at Kingston

Blount last May.

“Cheltenham is his last chance, but he won’t be going anywhere – I’ll team chase him and do these races on him,” said Ryan. “He’s a strong traveller, so I took a lead until five from home, which he winged and then I just let him go on. It turned into a two-horse race with Maurice Linehan and we battled it out up the hill.”

Ryan, who took out a training licence last summer and who trains 20 horses at Caradoc near Ross-on-Wye, beat Maurice on the almost equally quirky Woody by about a length.

Maurice, who was second in the Golden Button a few weeks ago on Woody, said: “I had a brilliant ride and everything went to plan – I just didn’t win!

“The ground was lovely and although it wasn’t the biggest course, they had to be fit to get round it and it was over proper hunting country.”

He admits that Woody is

“a bit of a pig, really, but I love him because he’s sound every morning and you can let him fly at his fences. Touch wood, he’d never fall.”

Zack Davidson and Remarkable Man finished third.

This new race was run at the Bailey family’s Charlton Abbotts estate and attracted a field of 46, 39 of whom completed the threemile, 17-fence course.

Organiser Louise Ingram said: “The best thing as an

“He either wins or he refuses to

race; he’s a real character”

organiser is seeing horses and riders come back in one piece, which was rewarding in itself as we aimed to keep the course as horse-friendly as possible without being too tame. But everyone was smiling afterwards and the positive feedback we’re received is overwhelming.”