Sine Nomine’s win in Friday’s St James’s Place Festival Hunters’ Chase at Cheltenham was a triumph for Fiona Needham and her parents Pat and Robin Tate.
Yet it was also another tremendous fillip for and an endorsement of British point-to-pointing, in which Robin first rode 70 years ago. No less importantly, it was a boost for small-string, small-budget yards across the land. Eight-year-old Sine Nomine, who Needham and her father bought, train and own, cost just £2,400 as an unbroken store at Goffs UK’s August Sale in 2019, and the family now have another simmering prospect in five-year-old Red Delta. They dug deep with a £3,000 investment to buy him in the same Doncaster ring, also unbroken, in 2022.
“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind week,” says Needham, manager at Catterick racecourse and an independent member of the Point-to-Point Authority Board. Heaps of good wishes have arrived via texts and WhatsApp messages, a variation on the letters and cards that arrived at the family’s Yorkshire farm in 2002 when she won the same race riding Last Option. He was another example of reaching the top via affordable money, having been bred by her parents using local stallion Primitive Rising and who by the covering date had become the last option, hence the name.
Twenty-two years later, Racing TV’s coverage from Cheltenham caught the moment as Sine Nomine was led like a fresh horse along the chute towards the winner’s enclosure with the senior half of the The Father & Daughter Partnership, all 86 years of him, striding purposefully behind. “They’re pretty sprightly and he rides out every day,” says Needham of her parents, adding: “It’s been wonderful and non-stop. I think Dad found this win more real. When Last Option won it didn’t sink in for two days, but this time he took it all in. It was a wonderful day and the way the mare did it – she was so gutsy.
Needham leading up Sine Nomine at Cheltenham's evening meeting last season (Ce)
“She came out of the race very bouncy and is in good form. Now we need to sit down and discuss a plan going forward, but she won’t be going to Aintree [for the Randox Foxhunters’ Chase]. Last Option ran three times in the Scottish National, finishing fourth, sixth and then pulling up, but while it’s a bit bold to think of that at the moment it’s on the table. An alternative would be the Cheltenham evening meeting and then the Horse & Hound Cup [at Stratford], but I wouldn’t want to run her if the ground became quick.”
Sine Nomine has been raised to a mark of 133 by the BHA handicapper, which more or less ensures she would get into the Scottish National on April 20. Another British point-to-pointer, Latenightpass, is heading to the Grand National which takes place at Aintree one week earlier, teeing up a possible double for the sport of unimaginable heights.
A further reason for swerving Aintree’s Foxhunters’ Chase with the mare is the 14-day ban handed to rider John Dawson for using his whip twice over the limit in last week’s race and which means he would not be available to take the ride. Needham says: “I want to keep John on her. He’s the best amateur in the north and I feel he deserves more recognition.”
So what of The Father & Daughter Partnership’s next good thing, Red Delta, a son of Alne Park Stud stallion Ocovango. Placed twice in two runs as a four-year-old, he has impressed this season with wins at Duncombe Park and Charm Park, but while entered at Garthorpe this weekend he is more likely to head to Thorpe Lodge on Easter Monday.
Of his future, Needham says: “They’ve got to stay sound, but he is a nice horse and it’s amazing because he didn’t cost much. Taking nothing away from Sine Nomine, because she is lovely and a lovely character, but he’s got the size and scope to be a proper horse.”
Red Delta (Nick Orpwood) seen winning at Charm Park earlier this month (Nina Edminson)
If Red Delta wins the intermediate race at Thorpe Lodge he qualifies for the hunters’ chase at that level at Cheltenham’s evening meeting, giving the stable two possible arrows to fire – and it does have a rather good record at the home of Jump racing.