15 June 2010 Scene & Heard: Torrington Farmers - Umberleigh
It took just six and a half minutes into the meeting for Richard Woollacott to sew up the men's championship by scoring a comfortable Confined success on Prince de Bersy, whose joint-owner and regular pilot Ben Robarts had given up the ride in favour of his fellow West country rider. READ MORE
01 June 2010 Scene & Heard: Stratford - May 28th & 29th
@news_thumb.jpg)
"Home-bred and English-bred, in fact Warwickshire-bred," was an elated Robert Waley-Cohen's initial comment after Roulez Cool had bounced back to form to beat a quality field in Hunter Chasing's final "classic" of the season, the W + S Recycling Stratford Foxhunters Champion Hunters' Chase. READ MORE
25 May 2010 Scene & Heard: Gelligaer Farmers - Lower Machen
John Mathias kept up his championship challenge with a double at Lower Machen, where the good ground produced by extensive watering ensured competitive racing. READ MORE
20 May 2010 Scene & Heard: North West Point-to-Point Club - Tabley
_MS@news_thumb.jpg)
The Turner family, paying a first visit to Tabley, gained their reward for the 21 hours spent on the road at the weekend when Parkinson took the Dodson & Horrell PPORA Novice Riders' Championship Final in the hands of owner Joe Turner's grandson Ed. READ MORE
17 May 2010 Scene & Heard: United Hunts - Folkestone
@news_thumb.jpg)
Carolyn Tanner was on hand at Folkestone last Thursday to catch all of the pre- and post-race gossip. READ MORE
12 May 2010 Scene & Heard: Melton Hunt Club - Garthorpe
Jake Greenall's flow of winners had slowed to a trickle for the three weekends preceding this fixture, but his championship challenge got back into gear with a Saturday/Sunday four-timer, including a Garthorpe treble. READ MORE
07 May 2010 Scene & Heard: Cheltenham Hunter Chase Evening
Carolyn Tanner was on hand at Cheltenham on Wednesday to catch the reactions to the Hunter Chase evening races. READ MORE
26 April 2010 Scene & Heard: West Norfolk - Fakenham
Nick Pearce kept up his record of never having left Fakenham without a winner by completing a double and thus taking home two bags of the sausages to which he is so partial, presented by sponsors Musks to the victorious rider. READ MORE
26 April 2010 Scene & Heard: United Pack - Brampton Bryan
When Jeremy Mahot won the Confined on Upton Springs it brought up a century of winners for her owner-breeder Peter Corbett, who moved on to 101 less than two hours later courtesy of Ladies' Open winner Upton Legend. READ MORE
22 April 2010 Scene & Heard: Towcester - April 20th
"That will make the journey back to Northallerton seem a bit shorter," smiled Caroline Bailey after Pass The Parsel, trained by her husband Gerald for Yorkshire-based owner Margaret Moody, had landed the spoils under a well-judged ride from Gerald's son Johnny. READ MORE
19 April 2010 Scene & Heard: Essex - High Easter
There was an upset in the area feature race, the historic Warwick Vase Ladies' Open, when the odds-on Mid Div And Creep, bidding for her fifth success of the season, was comprehensively beaten by Assassino, who was given a fine ride by Louise Allan and who was reversing the placings in the corresponding race 12 months ago. READ MORE
15 April 2010 Scene & Heard: John Wade Amateur Riders' Raceday - Sedgefield
Robin de Sherwood, who has been well to the fore in the pointtopoint.co.uk Young Horse championship, was given a fine ride by the under-used Nathan Moscrop to win the John Hellens Northern Hunts Hunter Chase. READ MORE
13 April 2010 Scene & Heard: Pytchley - Guilsborough
Coolefind continued his love affair with Guilsborough, scoring his fifth course victory by taking the Men's Open in the hands of Dickie Barrett. READ MORE
06 April 2010 Scene & Heard: Vine & Craven - Hackwood Park
Claire Douglas increased her lead in the national novice championship by taking the Conditions race on Presenting Express, whose owner Fenton Ramsahoye was in Barbados, but must be considered fortunate to have done so. READ MORE
06 April 2010 Scene & Heard: Ashford Valley - Charing
Merry Vic, who missed last season with a tendon injury, easily took the Men's open to make Marcus Gorman's dedication worthwhile. "He gets up at 5.30 every morning to get to London, and then goes to the gym at 10 in the evening when he comes home," said his wife Carolyn. "I don't know how he does it." READ MORE
23 March 2010 Scene & Heard: VWH - Siddington
Overlut returned to form with a vengeance in the Mixed Open, making all and giving a scintillating jumping exhibition in the hands of Rhys Hughes. READ MORE
16 March 2010 Scene & Heard: Tynedale - Corbridge
"That's the way it should have worked last week," commented Luke Morgan after winning the Men's Open on Gavin Hamilton's Lord Who. READ MORE
16 March 2010 Scene & Heard: South Wold - Brocklesby Park
The admirable Denvale, trained by Gerald Bailey, gave a master class in jumping when making all to win the Mixed Open in the hands of owner Richard Hunnisett, who was sporting a new set of colours. READ MORE
10 March 2010 Scene & Heard: Tanatside - Eyton-on-Severn
Will Kinsey took the riding honours with a double on horses from his own yard. The first leg came in the Restricted courtesy of Willie Wong, who was originally owned by a partnership consisting of Will himself, Richard Johnson, Richard Burton and David Greenway. READ MORE
09 March 2010 Scene & Heard: Brecon & Talybont - Llanfrynach
Following Erw Lon seven days previously it was déjà vu at Llanfrynach, with three winners for John Mathias and two for Rhys Hughes, while there was drama aplenty in both the Men's and Ladies' Opens. READ MORE
01 March 2010 Scene & Heard: Thurlow - Horseheath
The Sheila Crow-trained Unowatimeen earned his Cheltenham ticket when making all the running to win the Mens Open and provide rider Richard Burton with the first leg of his treble. READ MORE
26 February 2010 Scene & Heard: Huntingdon - February 25th
Steve Flook's pre-race optimism that Gentle George would give a good account of himself proved well-founded, the giant - 18 hands plus - bay taking the Weatherbys Bloodstock Insurance Hunters' Chase in the hands of Richard Burton. READ MORE
16 February 2010 Scene & Heard: Midlands Area Club - Thorpe Lodge
Trainer Nick Kent has always held a high opinion of Farmer Frank, and his patience, and that of owner Roger Jackson, looked to be paying off when the progressive youngster landed the Mens Open in the hands of Steve Magee. READ MORE
12 February 2010 Scene & Heard: Huntingdon - February 11th
Geoffrey Deacon saddled his first Hunter Chase winner when Accumulus, who was having his initial outing over regulation fences, took the honours in the hands of Richard Bandey. READ MORE
10 February 2010 Scene & Heard: Old Raby - Witton Castle
To see two sets of three siblings all in the winner's enclosure at the same meeting must surely be a unique occurrence, and it was the Dawsons and the Greenalls who achieved this unlikely feat. READ MORE
08 February 2010 Scene & Heard: Jedforest - Friars Haugh
The day belonged to reigning Northern area champion Kelly Bryson, who recorded her first ever treble. Kelly works for Simon and Philippa Shirley-Beavan, and the first of her victories was an armchair ride in their colours on Quotica de Poyans in the Hunt race. READ MORE
02 February 2010 Scene & Heard: Cambridgeshire with Enfield Chace - Horseheath
"I'm the lightest I've been for years!" proclaimed a delighted Richard Hunnisett after taking the Mens Open on his Denvale. READ MORE
27 January 2010 Scene & Heard: Waveney Harriers - Higham
Big Moment's strong run from off the pace to snatch a last-gasp victory in a quality Ladies Open was considered by racegoers to be a perfectly-judged ride from Claire Douglas, but her effort was greeted with less acclaim by trainer Jenny Gordon and her husband Chris. READ MORE
25 January 2010 Scene & Heard: Royal Artillery - Larkhill
To commence your 40th season of race-riding, during which time you have booted home 145 Point-to-Point winners but have never ridden a treble, seems an unlikely statistic, but it is one to which Godfrey Maundrell could lay claim until Saturday. READ MORE
30 December 2009 Scene & Heard: Cambridgeshire Harriers Hunt Club - Cottenham
The Mens Open, the first in the Brightwells Order of Excellence series, went the way of William and Angela Rucker's Cedrus Libani, who gave a stone to runner-up Forget The Ref when making all the running in the hands of Richard Burton. READ MORE
08 December 2009 Scene & Heard: Cambridge University United Hunts Club - Cottenham
Richard Burton, wearing the set of colours normally donned by 14-year-old Emily Rucker for pony racing - "They were the only ones we had available," smiled her father William - won the Men's Open on Cedrus Libani, now trained at home by Angela after a spell with Evan Williams. READ MORE
21 September 2009 Scene & Heard: Gerald & Caroline Bailey's Open Day
Successful Midlands rider Dickie Barrett has taken on a new full-time role, as he has recently been appointed assistant to trainer Caroline Bailey. "When she rang and asked me to go and see her, I thought it was to sort out which days I was going there to ride out," admitted Dickie, who had no hesitation in accepting the offer. READ MORE
16 June 2009 Scene & Heard: Torrington Farmers - Umberleigh
Records are made to be broken, but it would be no surprise if the one set by the Greenall family remained unequalled. READ MORE
28 May 2009 Scene & Heard: Countryside Alliance Club (Wales) - Bonvilston
If Manormouse was, as seems likely, to be Beverley Thomas's final runner, the Pembrokeshire trainer went out on a high after Adrian Simpson's six-year-old took the Restricted in the hands of Kyle Yates. Beverley is giving up training at the end of the season, and the ground conditions at Trecoed on June 6 will determine whether or not she has a runner there. READ MORE
27 May 2009 Scene & Heard: Stratford-upon-Avon - May 22nd & 23rd
"Everything comes to he who waits" could have been coined for Southwestern, the most popular and deserving winner of the 51st running of the prestigious W & S Recycling Stratford Foxhunters Champion Hunters' Chase, the third most valuable of the season behind the two Foxhunters. READ MORE
19 May 2009 Scene & Heard: Grafton - Whitfield
The weather did its worst, but it was not enough to dampen the enthusiasm for the Grafton's new course at Whitfield, which was acclaimed by riders and spectators alike. READ MORE
16 May 2009 Scene & Heard: United Hunts at Folkestone - May 14th
"You like to make it look exciting, don't you?" was Alan Hill's comment to Richard Woollacott after the Devon-based rider had maintained his 100% record at the track by winning the opening Nick Mills Memorial Maiden Hunters' Chase on Mysaynoway, who was bought at Ascot in February by the Hills with a view to running in Selling Hurdles during the summer. READ MORE
13 May 2009 Scene & Heard: Melton Hunt Club - Garthorpe
Thomas Greenall's first four-timer took him into pole position in the championship table, one ahead of Dave Mansell. Despite admitting that he doesn't like to make the running, Thomas found himself making virtually every yard on all his winners. READ MORE
08 May 2009 Scene & Heard: Hunters' Chase Evening - Cheltenham
"The things he'll do for a jacket!" commented Dai Jones after Michael Miller, who won the inaugural running of the Connolly's Red Mills Intermediate Point-to-Point Championship Final on Massimo, repeated the feat on Drybrook Bedouin after a battle royal with Sam Twiston-Davies and Grenfell. READ MORE
05 May 2009 Scene & Heard: Pendle Forest & Craven - Heslaker
The consistent Flashy Boy, who has never finished out of the frame in his three seasons with the Kinsey family, almost had his first success of the campaign foiled by no less than his trainer, rider Hannah Burton's brother Will Kinsey. READ MORE
04 May 2009 Scene & Heard: Radnor & West Hereford (Day 1)
"That was dreadful - the horse won the race, not the jockey," candidly confessed Paul Tolman, head lad to Alison Thorpe, after landing the Confined on No Virtue. READ MORE
04 May 2009 Scene & Heard: James Griffiths Memorial Novices' HC - Bangor-on-Dee
Worship The Stars, whose target all season has been the pointtopoint.co.uk John Corbet Chase at Stratford, tuned up in style at Bangor, coming home unchallenged to provide rider Jeremy Mahot with his first success since returning to action after dislocating his shoulder on March 1. READ MORE
01 May 2009 Scene & Heard: Paul Rackham Champion Novices' Hunters' Chase - Huntingdon
The trainer and jockey combination of David Kemp and Andrew Braithwaite struck again at Huntingdon when Took My Eye won the contest limited to horses qualified with an East Anglian hunt. READ MORE
28 April 2009 Scene & Heard: West Norfolk - Fakenham
"We don't know if he'll be up to Open company or not - we'll have to see," said David Kemp prior to Where's My Baby's first foray into the class, but the seven-year-old rose to the occasion in the hands of super-sub Andrew Braithwaite, getting the better of Go North and Gun Smith in a blanket finish. READ MORE
22 April 2009 Scene & Heard: Braes of Derwent - Corbridge
"Last runner, last winner!" After Rose Dobbin had won the Ladies Open on Rayshan, trainer Morag Herdman announced her retirement, her one proviso being that she might carry on training her own mare Honkytonk Angel. READ MORE
21 April 2009 Scene & Heard: Cleveland - Mordon
"Not many people win with a horse that's come out of Tim Walford's," said Mike Sowersby, paying a compliment to both his fellow trainer and to his wife Mary, who saddled Forge Valley to win the 2m4f Maiden in the hands of Guy Brewer. READ MORE
20 April 2009 Scene & Heard: Sedgefield - Friday April 17th
Racegoers at Sedgefield could have been forgiven for thinking that the unsaddling enclosure after the Ron & Pat Crake's 30th Wedding Anniversary Hunter Chase bore a marked resemblance to a doctor's waiting room. READ MORE
16 April 2009 Scene & Heard: Essex Farmers & Union - Marks Tey
The 2008 Princess Royal Trophy winner Gina Andrews recorded her first double at Marks Tey, taking the Intermediate on Mai Cure and the Restricted on Royal Tender. READ MORE
15 April 2009 Scene & Heard: North Staffordshire - Sandon
Richard Burton, who rode his first winner 15 years ago on Fence Judge at Eaton Hall, clocked up his 400th career success when taking the 2m4f Maiden on Quintero, whose trainer Fergal O'Brien had opted to go to Bitterley and had left his wife Jelly to saddle William and Angela Rucker's five-year-old. The Ruckers were also at the Ludlow track, where Angela won the Ladies' Open on Honest Endeavour. READ MORE
08 April 2009 Scene & Heard: Pytchley - Guilsborough
Richard Hunnisett, who broke his arm in a hunting accident prior to the start of the season, made a successful return to the saddle when Denvale, carrying 4lbs overweight, made all the running to land the Men's Open to give him his 50th triumph between the flags, although the outcome would have been even more satisfactory but for an oversight on Richard's part. READ MORE
31 March 2009 Scene & Heard: United Pack - Brampton Bryan
Riders were unanimous in their praise for the excellent ground produced by Clerks of the Course Wayne Tuffin and Kelda Wood - comments ranged from "I can't fault it" to "I've never seen it in such good condition" - so it was fitting that Kelda herself saddled the 3m Maiden winner Astormydayiscoming. READ MORE
25 March 2009 Scene & Heard: Easton Harriers - High Easter
"I've always been keen on two things - a horseman and a thinker. By that last, I mean a jockey, not a horse - I've had enough of those in my time!" Trainer Nibby Bloom sings the praises of super-sub Joe Docker, who again stood in successfully for James Owen on Men's Open winner Go North. READ MORE
17 March 2009 Scene & Heard: Fitzwilliam (Milton) - Cottenham
Master Rex, who had stood on the lorry with his foot packed in ice as a precaution against the lameness which had been plaguing him all week, showed the benefit of the cold treatment by taking the Men's Open under Johnny Bailey, despite hitting the front earlier than was ideal. READ MORE
11 March 2009 Scene & Heard: Suffolk - Ampton
Pam Sly's assertion to Simon Andrews that Delightful Cliché would win a Ladies' Open was borne out when her former charge took the Suffolk's contest under Gina Andrews, who drove him out with hands and heels after dropping her whip just after the last. READ MORE
03 March 2009 Scene & Heard: Granta Harriers - Higham
"Neither you nor I will win this because we're going far too quick," were James Tudor's words to Alex Vaughan-Jones as they set a scorching pace in the Restricted. James was correct in that Alex and Lord Of The Knar dropped out of contention, but his own mount Start Royal never looked like stopping and galloped on to a comfortable victory. READ MORE
25 February 2009 Scene & Heard: South East Hunts Club - Charing
There could have been no more appropriate winner of the Ladies' Open than Myson, who gave Rose Grissell her first success both as trainer and rider. READ MORE
24 February 2009 Scene & Heard: North Herefordshire - Whitwick Manor
"I've bullied Burtie all winter to ride him," said an ecstatic Tiddles Tellwright after her Steppes Of Gold had landed the Men's Open in the hands of Richard Burton. "I first rode out with him when he was 14, and now he's reduced me to tears!" READ MORE
20 February 2009 Scene & Heard: Huntingdon - GG's Lightweight Horse Boxes Hunters' Chase
You Do The Math is Cheltenham-bound following his victory in the GG's Lightweight Horse Boxes Hunters' Chase at Huntingdon on Thursday. READ MORE
17 February 2009 Scene & Heard: Cambridge University Draghounds - Cottenham
Andrew Braithwaite, whose job has recently necessitated him working in Norwich, may find the door barred when he returns to his Norfolk lodgings. READ MORE
03 February 2009 Scene & Heard: Burton - North Carlton
There was plenty of praise for the new course on the Lincoln showground at North Carlton, and the organisers deserve full marks for putting in the work involved in staging the meeting. All the changing, weighing and secretarial facilities were housed in a large barn, and the course was in excellent condition and rode well, although one senior rider thought it was definitely an early-season track, as the heathland could quickly become firm. READ MORE
02 February 2009 Scene & Heard: Jedforest - Friars Haugh
Jonathan Bewley has his father George to thank for getting him the ride on Mens Open winner Natiain. George was out hunting at a joint meet of the Buccleuch and Jedforest when the chesnut's owner Alastair Brown remarked that he didn't have a jockey, so George put his son's name forward. READ MORE
27 January 2009 Scene & Heard: North Norfolk Harriers - Higham
The class act on show was Mike Tuckey's Chilling Place, who cruised to victory in the Men's Open. "He's a better horse than Gunther McBride, even though he's won about £200,000 less in prize money," opined Mike's jockey son Ben. "He's just been very unlucky." READ MORE
26 January 2009 Scene & Heard: Royal Artillery - Larkhill
Emma Baker, who is planning to take out a trainer's licence as soon as possible, pronounced herself "still in shock" after saddling Gaelsbob to land the Men's Open in the hands of Luke Morgan. READ MORE
19 January 2009 Scene & Heard: PPORC - Barbury Racecourse
After Gentle George had landed the first of the season's Connolly's Red Mills Intermediate qualifiers in the hands of Richard Burton, owner-trainer Steve Flook confirmed him as a definite entry for the final at Cheltenham on May 6. READ MORE
15 December 2008 Scene & Heard: Cornwall Hunt Club - Wadebridge
It was mission accomplished for Burntoakboy, who earned his Cheltenham qualification with a facile Open victory, his second of the campaign, under Tom Weston. Owner-trainer Richard Newland was not there to witness the success, though, as Millie Murray, who led up the winner and also had to give Richard a running commentary on the phone, explained. "It was his company staff party last night, so he wouldn't have been in a fit state to drive down," she laughed. READ MORE
03 December 2008 Scene & Heard: Cambridge University United Hunts Club - Cottenham
Burntoakboy, winner of the Coral Cup at the 2007 Cheltenham Festival and third in the Kim Muir Chase there less than nine months ago, is halfway to gaining his Foxhunters' qualification (two Open victories or two firsts or seconds in Hunter Chases) after an effortless success in the Men's Open. READ MORE
