25 February 2008 Thurlow - Horseheath
Stuart Morris: doubled up on the day aboard Northall Lad
"I was waving so much that I even got Russian TV on my stick." Tim Lane describes his very uncomfortable ride on the less than fluent Dickensbury Lad at Warwick the previous day.
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Jeff Sargeant's Ballyowen, the only non-favourite to oblige, gave a splendid front-running performance to win the Restricted in the hands of Alex Vaughan-Jones, deputising for the sidelined Matthew Mackley. "I showed him how to do it last week," grinned Ballyowen's trainer Fred Farrow, 70, who eight days earlier had won the Charity flat race at Fakenham on his charge. The nine-year-old's previous bleeding problems appear to have been overcome by a change of routine, and he now lives out all the time.
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"Fortunately it was half an hour before lunch, not after." Alex Vaughan-Jones, 6'3", who got the call to partner Ballyowen around lunchtime the previous day.
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Matthew Mackley missed another winner when Mid Div And Creep, from Derek Harding-Jones's yard, took the Mares' Maiden, a first success for owners Tony and Karen Exall. The deputy on this occasion was reigning champion James Tudor. "She jumps ever so well, touch wood," said Derek's son Perry, adding with a laugh "But I said that about the last one [Very Presentable] and it fell at the first at Cottenham!"
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Rarely does owner Joan Tice leave Horseheath without a winner, and this time it was Teeton Dazzler who gave her another trophy, taking the Intermediate under Stuart Morris.
Stuart doubled up in the Open on the progressive Northall Lad, who toyed with his rivals on the run-in. "The only easier winner I've ridden was here two years ago on Arctic Double," admitted Stuart, for whom this was a 140th success between the flags.
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Free's Ladies' Open victory gave a belated birthday present to owner Susan Hutchinson, 50 last Wednesday. Asked if she objected to having her age mentioned, she laughed "No, everybody thinks I'm 60 anyway!"
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David Kemp survived an early scare when Where's My Baby ploughed through the first ditch, but John and Tricia Ridge's six-year-old was otherwise untroubled to land the Maiden. "I'm delighted for John," said David's father Malcolm. "He loves his racing, and he rings me more often than he does his wife!"
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Airline pilot Alex Harvey landed back in England at 7am after a flight from New York, but showed no signs of fatigue as he welcomed his Bob Ar Aghaidh into the winner's enclosure after his all-the-way victory in the Club Members' race under Andrew Braithwaite, a repeat of the combination's success in the corresponding contest here three weeks earlier.
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One owner, a civil servant in the immigration department, had been hoping for some rain to ease the ground so that he could run his horse. Rumour has it he asked for help from an unusual source, but his reported request to the four Nigerian witch doctors recently admitted into the country went unheeded, and the heavens failed to open.
