REVIEW |
The penultimate meeting of the season in the North Western
Area was the North Shropshire
Hunt meeting between the flags at Eyton on Severn yesterday. The crowd was
slightly down on the corresponding fixture last year and those who stayed
away missed a cracking afternoons racing which took place mainly in
glorious sunshine. There were plenty of runners at the course which was
down to the fact that the clerk of the course John Beddoes and his team
produced perfect going at the Shropshire track. I walked the course before
hand and it was really good racing ground, a credit to Beddoes and his
staff. Shrewsbury rider Richard Burton has one hand on the National
Riders Championship after completing a double at Eyton to put him on the
31 winner mark. He also became the first ever rider to win the area
gentleman riders championship amassing 100pts and there is still one
meeting left. The first leg came aboard Involved in the Confined, who won
with insulting ease by 25 lengths from Lifebuoy. The winner is another
inmate from the Hadnall yard of Sheila Crow for owner Richard French from
Eccleshall. The Macmillion gelding has now won 5 races on the trot and as
a result it is good enough to win the award for the champion horse in the
area. Sheila Crow is not going for the John Corbett at Stratford with
Involved as most people thought, she said, ”He is now finished for the
season and will be roughed off. After all, he is only a young horse and
myself and Edward (Crow) feel he has a tremendous future. He is a very
serious horse and I see him as a Cheltenham (Foxhunters) horse next
year…he’s very good.” Burton completed the double aboard Petrouge in the Getting
Out Stakes (Restricted)
beating Just Cliquot by 3 lengths. The runner ups cause was not helped by
being left at the start. The winner was the 7th of the season
for Sheriffhales trainer Caroline Robinson and was yet another one owned
by her father Jeremy Beasley. Richard Burton’s cousin Heidi Brookshaw also entered the
winners enclosure as the successful trainer of Pennyahei, who won the
Ladies Open under a supremely confident ride from Sammie Beddoes by 12
lengths from Hoodwinker. The winner was bred by the trainers mothers Zena,
who said afterwards that the winners style of racing was very similar to
that of her home bred dam
Pennyazena. Sammie Beddoes, the daughter of the clerk of the course John,
went on to complete a double at the Shropshire course aboard The Longest
Day in the opening Members race, accounting for the notable scalp of the
Alistair Crow ridden Whatafellow, a winner of over 20 races. The runner up
went off at 1-6 on, while the winner returned at around 5-1. It was an
amazing result and it is one that epitomises the Corinthian ideals of our
sport. The home bred son of Weld was born in a field a stones throw away
from the course by the clerk of the course John Beddoes and his wife Ann,
who own the winner jointly. Ann was elated when I spoke to her afterwards,
she said, ”We named him The Longest Day, because he was foaled on June
21st., god which was late! Until 9 weeks ago he was still in a
field. Sammie has done all the work with him, she has trained him and all
the credit has to go to her, she has put all the work into the horse.” This
was Sammies 7th win of the season and with it the area ladies
championship. Pattingham owner Roy Swinburne was visiting the winners
enclosure for the second time in three days (Fullopep in the Members at
Weston Park on Saturday) with John Foley who beat Celtic Boy a shade
comfortably by 6 lengths in Div 1 of the Open Maiden. I don’t know who
was more knackered afterwards, the winning trainer and rider Paul Morris
from Wolverhampton or the horse! Seriously, this son of Petardia is one
for the notebook next season. Division 2 of the Open Maiden was won by the 25-1 outsider
Cool Chief under Kevin Pearson, who beat the jolly Donrico by a length and
a half. The winner is trained at Tarporley by Carrie Ford and co owned by
her husband Richard. This was Carries first winner as a trainer since she
hung up her boots as a rider a fortnignt ago. She rode over 50 winners
between the flags and 30 under rules, spanning 16 years in the plate. The first three home in the Mens Open Hanakham , Nothing Ventured and Lord Harry, will meet again the Bangor Final in a fortnight on May 17th. The winner is trainer at Cholmondley by Ginger McCains son Donald, who only has one pointer to train in his yard and the Phardante gelding has now won all three starts this season, the last two have been hunter chases at Bangor. The winner is owned by the flamboyant entrepreneur Derek Malam from Nantwich, who will also have Mister Moss in the Bangor Final. Thank God the Crow family are friends of mine or I would not have reported that Lord Harry was a bit fat in the parade ring beforehand. This run will have put him spot on and I would not put anyone off backing the Mister Lord gelding to win his 4th consecutive Bangor Final. |