Gina Andrews and Ben Rivett, two of East Anglia’s top Point-To-Point jockeys of recent years, both had reason to celebrate as the 2016-17 season got under way with the Cambridge University United Hunts Club meeting at Cottenham, near Cambridge, on Sunday November 27th.
Andrews, originally from Lilley in Hertfordshire but now based at Marton, near Rugby, began the defence of her National Lady Riders Championship by registering the 200th victory of her career.
Her smooth success aboard Celtic Silver in the Subaru-sponsored Restricted Race was only her 147th British Pointing win, but given that she has also scored twice between the flags in Ireland and 51 times under professional rules in this country, it brought up her double century.
Celtic Silver is an armchair conveyance for Gina’s double century and is set to return to Cottenham on New Year’s Eve
Rivett, from near Attleborough in Norfolk, could manage no better than a pair of second places from his four rides. Yet he could look back on the afternoon with some satisfaction, as he proved to both himself and a fair-sized crowd that he still has what it takes following a two-year break from the saddle owing to work commitments.
The day’s most successful pilot was Sam Davies-Thomas. But although he notched a first and last race double aboard Lough Inch and Extreme Appeal, he could be forgiven for concentrating on ‘the one that got away’ following a narrow reverse in the three mile maiden.
Davies-Thomas’s mount here, Skipping On, passed the post a neck adrift of All The Sevens having been squeezed up against the outside rail by his rival as the pair fought out a tremendous duel up the run-in.
All The Sevens (Dale Peters) has a tidy lead at the last but it’s about to get tight between him and the chasing Skipping On (Sam Davies-Thomas)
A long stewards enquiry ensued but although the winning rider, Dale Peters, from Sawtry in Cambridgeshire, was found guilty of careless riding and fined £75, the result was allowed to stand.
The tables were turned 35 minutes later as Peters, riding Mister Murch, had to give best to Davies-Thomas, aboard Extreme Appeal, in the young horse maiden over two and a half miles.
A carbon copy of the other Maiden, as Extreme Appeal (Davies-Thomas) makes his final leap ahead of Mister Murch (Peters) and there were no dramas on the run-in this time
The easiest victory on the card came in the curtain-raiser as Lough Inch, trained near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire by Tommy Morgan, took his Cottenham record to an incredible five wins from six career outings when making all the running in the 2m 4f Club Members Race.
Lough Inch in front and en route to a fifth Cottenham victory
“Lough Inch is lethal, especially over this shorter trip,” Morgan exclaimed afterwards. “For him to win is a relief more than anything as he is such a good work horse at home that we judge all our other horses on how close they can get to him.”
The veteran Consigliere showed few signs of slowing down just a month shy of his 14th birthday when clocking a new course record time while landing the Mens Open for the father and son trainer-jockey combination of Alan and Joe Hill, from Oxfordshire.
Hill senior was denied a double in the Skinner’s Pet Foods Ladies Open when Sharp Suit found Bound For Glory four lengths too strong.
Trained in Gloucestershire by David Fitch-Peyton, the former trailblazer Bound For Glory is being ridden with more restraint these days in the hope that he might be able to last the stiff three and a quarter miles of the Cheltenham Foxhunter in March.
Sharp Suit is in front but Ali Stirling aboard Bound For Glory (right) is waiting to pounce
Hill senior was denied a double in the Skinner’s Pet Foods Ladies Open when Sharp Suit found Bound For Glory four lengths too strong.
Trained in Gloucestershire by David Fitch-Peyton, the former trailblazer Bound For Glory is being ridden with more restraint these days in the hope that he might be able to last the stiff three and a quarter miles of the Cheltenham Foxhunter in March.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY UNITED HUNTS CLUB RESULTS
COTTENHAM, SUNDAY NOVEMBER 27TH
GOING: GOOD, GOOD TO FIRM IN PLACES
PPORA Club Members’ Conditions (2 ½ miles )
1st LOUGH INCH (Sam Davies-Thomas) 4/6 Fav
2nd Abbey Lane ( Ben Rivett) 6/1
3rd Anquetta ( Sam Waley-Cohen) 3/1
Time: 4 mins 20 secs Distances: 12L, 10L 8 ran
Mens Open
1st CONSIGLIERE (Joe Hill) 1/3 Fav
2nd Never Complain ( Charlie Marshall) 7/2
3rdBincombe ( Tom Gredley ) 12/1
Time: 5-45 (course record) Dists: 8L, Distance 4 ran
Ladies Open
1st BOUND FOR GLORY ( Ali Stirling) 4/5 Fav
2nd Sharp Suit ( Gina Andrews) 5/4
3rd Don’t Do Mondays ( Hannah Watson) 5/1
Time: 5-54 Dists: 4L, 12L 5 ran
Restricted
1st CELTIC SILVER ( Gina Andrews) 11/10 Fav
2nd Scorpion Star ( Ben Rivett) 6/4
Only two finished.
Time: 6-00 Dists: 12L 3 ran
Open Maiden
1st ALL THE SEVENS ( Dale Peters) 3/1
2nd Skipping On ( Sam Davies-Thomas ) 4/6 Fav
3rd Verdasco ( Kate Gowing) 12/1
Time: 5-50 Dists: Neck, 8L 7 ran
* After a stewards inquiry, the result stands.
Open Maiden ( 4,5 & 6–year-olds ) 2 ½ miles
1st EXTREME APPEAL (Sam Davies-Thomas) 6/4 Fav
2nd Mister Murch (Dale Peters) 5/2
3rd Kev The Car ( Rupert Stearn ) 10/1
Time: 4-35 Dist: 3L, 6L 7 ran
ENDS
