Having very much enjoyed revisiting the point to point world with Carruthers at the end of his illustrious career, we decided that there was a definite place for separating a part of the back yard to dedicate to pointing.
Since then we have had great success with Southfield Theatre. He has won no less than 5 races between the flags and gave Lily her first success under rules when the two of them gave connections a great evening winning the 4 mile hunter chase at Cheltenham. Southfield Theatre had not won for 3 years when he came to us and we realised that the extra bit of individual attention and the lesser opposition gave him a wonderful new lease of life that we would love to offer to others.
Damby’s Star was completely and totally useless when running under rules but Lily pleaded with me to let him go pointing and he won his maiden race well at the Heythrop and has given us a lot of fun in Restricted races since.
Peddler is a beautiful well bred son of Scorpion, who like so many of his father’s progeny, was slow to come to himself so we decided to do as the Irish do and run him in a point to point rather than a bumper. He duly obliged at Lockinge and, although he subsequently suffered an injury at Warwick, is in good form now and we should have a lot of fun with him under rules.
Next year we will run Flintham, who has been out of action for several years but is still well capable in hunter chases, and we are looking to expand our Point to point yard. It is a great life for an older horse who may have become lost in one of the bigger yards. With us they get extra attention at home and there’s less formality when they get to the races, so please do get in contact if you feel you have a horse that may fit the bill.
It has also begun to be proved that we, in England could do no better than what they do in Ireland and give horses an easy introduction to racing in point to points. Having done exactly that with Peddler, we are thinking of setting up a syndicate to buy young horses, win a maiden before selling them on. I think that most people would agree that we have proved that we are good at looking after and then getting the best out of our cheaply bought young horses so, if any readers of this are interested in that idea please do get in touch.
