David Kemp was the star turn at the West Norfolk Point-To-Point at Fakenham on Sunday bringing up his career century of winners with a first and last race double on a pair of horses he trains at Kilverstone, near Thetford.
He had been stranded on the 99-mark since April 1st and had partnered four runners-up in the intervening period, including two at Kingston Blount in Oxfordshire the previous day.
When the all-important landmark was reached it was done in some style as Caulkin made every hard of the running and came home an easy 20 lengths clear of the 2012 winner, Rock Alliance, in the Hunt Members Race.
Kemp’s first triumph had come almost exactly a decade earlier aboard Teabox at Ampton and the 33-year-old named Cantarinho, on whom he took the John Corbet Champion Novice Hunter Chase at Stratford in 2004, as the best horse he had ridden.
A quickfire Kemp double looked likely when he also adopted trailblazing tactics on Master Workman in the following Club Members Race. But he was overhauled at the last fence by Coral Point, ridden by Carey Williamson, from Cowlinge, near Newmarket, and defeated by 15 lengths.
So he had to wait until the closing Open Maiden to complete his brace. This time Kemp’s conveyance was Moroman, who was much more at home on this good ground than he had been on the soft terrain at Mollington on his previous start and won in the style of a young horse with a decent future.
Kemp’s great friend and rival, Ben Rivett, from Sharrington in Norfolk, extended his lead in the County Linen Services East Anglian Jockeys Championship by guiding The Rattler O’Brien to a six-length victory in the Restricted Race.
This was a seventh success of the campaign for both Rivett and the husband and wife training partnership of Andrew and Ruth Pennock, who hail from Timworth, near Bury St Edmunds.
Archie Wright could be a champion jockey of the future and he again looked polished when steering Sheriff Hutton to an easy win in the Mens Open – the third victory of his inaugural season in the saddle.
Sheriff Hutton is trained at Badlingham, near Newmarket, by Wright’s father, Nick, who revealed afterwards that his son had come a cropper when schooling Sheriff Hutton over some barrels just 24 hours earlier but was none the worse for his tumble.
Caroline Fryer, from Wymondham, added to her double under professional rules at Fakenham’s Easter Monday fixture when she saddled Working Title to a 20-length score in the Ladies Open. Working Title was sporting blinkers for the first time and Fryer thought that they had made a difference, saying: “He was really having a cut at his fences today having been rather ponderous over them of late in hunter chases.”
WEST NORFOLK POINT-TO-POINT RESULTS
Going: Good (Good To Firm in places)
Members Race
1st Caulkin – David Kemp 4/6f
2nd Rock Alliance – Jack Bloom 3/1
3rd The Pipers Son – Ben Rivett 5/2
Time 6 mins 28 secs Dists: 20L, Dist 6 ran
PPORA Club Race
1st Coral Point – Carey Williamson 7/2
2nd Master Workman – David Kemp 5/2
3rd Osolomio – Faye Conway 4/1
Time No time taken Dists: 15L, 15L 7 ran Sa Kaldoun 2/1f (PU)
Restricted Race
1st The Rattler Obrien – Ben Rivett 4/1
2nd Baltic Blue – Carey Williamson 16/1
3rd Tomstar – Robbie McCarthy 5/2
Time 6-30 Dists: 6L, 1L 11 ran Day Time Run 9/4f (RO)
Mens Race
1st Sheriff Hutton – Archie Wright 7/2
2nd Cedrus Libani Will Hickman 12/1
3rd Walkin Aisy Dicky Collinson 8/1
Time 6-23 Dists: Dist, 8L 9 ran Galbally King 2/1f (PU)
Ladies Race
1st Working Title – Bridget Andrews 8/11f
2nd Break The Chain – Jennifer Harbison 10/1
3rd Pollen Jock – Gina Andrews 4/1
Time 6-24* Dists:20L, Dist 8 ran *1 jump omitted, damaged fence
Open Maiden
1st Moroman – David Kemp 5/1
2nd Violet Crack – Dicky Collinson 5/1
3rd Mahayogin – Robbie McCarthy 4/1
Time 6-32* Dists: Dist, 6L 12 ran *3 jumps omitted, damaged fence
Hunts View 3/1f (PU)
