REVIEW PORTMAN BADBURY RINGS SATURDAY 13 APRIL 2002 by Bob Bracher and Gill Armstrong |
A large crowd enjoyed the Portman Hunt's annual
Point-to-Point at Badbury Rings last Saturday, despite that, due to the
lack of rain in recent days, the firm ground restricted the number of
runners. The highlights of the meeting were a first ever victory for Lucy
Fishenden and a training treble for local trainer John Dufosee. John saddled Sue Woodhouse's Best Bitter in the opening race,
the Confined Hunts, and may have been successful had it not been for the
fact that the horse made a bad mistake at the sixteenth fence which rider
Nick Mitchell did well to survive. This
then left the race at the mercy of Susie's Melody, who provided Guy
Weatherley with his second ever career victory. The winner, who is trained
by Kate Buckett at Upham, is owned by Anna Reed and was following up on
his previous course triumph in February. The script could not have been better written for Lucy
Fishenden when, making her first ever venture into race riding in the Hunt
race, she rode a good race aboard Ali Tory's Willie Makeit to defeat Nick
Mitchell riding Inforapop. Lucy, 21, hails from Sturminster Newton and has
been working at Ali Tory's stable for two seasons.
She is looking forward to riding as a novice rider for the stable
next season and hopes that Ali will keep Willie Makeit in training for
her. In the meantime Ali
plans to run the horse, which she was given by the Not So Blonde
Partnership, in the West Country Hunterchase Final at Wincanton on 10th
May. The third race, the Maiden race for 5, 6 & 7 year olds,
resulted in a walkover for Indian Muse owned by Pat Awdry, trained by John
Dufosee and ridden by Mark Shears. John
then quickly followed up when Badger Beer, owned by Sue Woodhouse and
ridden by Nick Mitchell, won the Mixed Open race. Lord Max, who was Badger
Beer's main rival, was still in contention when falling heavily at the
sixteenth fence but his departure allowed Badger Beer to come home
virtually solo. Badger Beer's planned next outing will be in a Hunterchase
at the evening meeting at Cheltenham on 1st May. James Richardson, the rider of Lord Max, had the consolation
of collecting the Eric Dymott Memorial Trophy for the most successful
Novice Rider at Badbury Rings for the three meetings and, unless he rides
two more winners before the start of next season, he plans to be back to
reclaim the Trophy in 2003. There were no declared horses for the fifth race, the Restricted, but a field of seven took part in the final event, the Maiden race for eight year olds and upwards. Nice Approach, who has been placed second five times in point-to-points or Hunter Chases, finally broke his duck when completing the treble for trainer John Dufosee. The horse is a full brother to the Whitbread Gold Cup winner Harwell Lad. His rider, Jamie Snowden, an officer cadet at Sandhurst, was off to Italy the next day to do venture training. |