Two fine ambassadors for point-to-pointing bowed out of the sport on a high at Chaddesley Corbett’s Bank Holiday Monday meeting.
Hannah Lewis hung up her racing saddle after 19 seasons having become champion woman rider in the West Midlands for the first time, while Cheltenham Foxhunter Chase winner Hazel Hill was retired after winning the Albrighton Woodland Members’ Race.
Despite being the final race on the card a small crowd remained behind to witness 13-year-old Hazel Hill walk into a winner’s enclosure for the final time, having recorded his 13th point-to-point victory from 16 starts. He also won six of eight hunters’ chases, highlighted by his 2019 victory at the Cheltenham Festival, but closely followed by his epic duel a month later against Caryto Des Brosses in the Timico Final at the evening hunters’ chase meeting.
Unraced until he was six, Hazel Hill (pictured above during his final race) remained a maiden after four starts in Irish point-to-points, but his winning spree commenced once he was bought by Mrs Williams and trained by her at home in Staffordshire. Her daughter, Jane, who was unbeaten on the horse in his next five races, said: “His first race for us was at Chaddesley Corbett. I gave him a smack at Lambs Hill [turning for home] and he took off.”
(l to r) Peter, Jane and Diana Williams with Hazel Hill after his final race (photo Carl Evans)
In 2017, after Jane retired from race riding, Hazel Hill was transferred to Phil & Mell Rowley’s stable and from there he and rider Alex Edwards struck up a formidable partnership. Their most recent outing came when Hazel Hill was fifth in this year’s Festival Hunters’ Chase.
For his final two runs in point-to-points Tommie O’Brien was given the keys. After Monday’s win O’Brien said: “It has been an absolute privilege and an honour to be called up to ride the horse. He started racing when I first started riding in Britain, and I’ve followed his career along the way. He didn’t jump brilliantly on the first circuit today – it takes him a while to warm up – but he got the job done.”
Hazel Hill after his final race with devoted groom Michaela (photo JTW Equine Images)
‘You can never replace the buzz’, says Lewis
Hannah Lewis’s final ride came on the Lucy Smith-trained, Clive Bennett-owned Shometheway, who finished third in the conditions’ race for women riders. She retired having ridden 93 winners, her first ride having been taken at Garnons in 2002, when she pulled up in a ladies’ open race on Velvet Belle.
After a slow start a debut victory came on Lord Castle at Whitwick Manor in 2004 and from there she built a position as one of the leading riders in South Wales and the West Midlands. Multiple winners Cannon Bridge and Watchthebirdie were among her best rides, and she won the AGA series twice, collecting two of the manufacturer’s ovens. Other highlights included three rides in Aintree’s Foxhunters’ Chase on Bound For Glory, the partnership twice finishing an honourable fifth at big prices.
Hannah Lewis (photo Carl Evans)
Lewis, who trains a small string of pointers at a yard in Worcestershire, was rocked by the recent death of her close friend Lorna Brooke. She said of her decision to retire: “So many of the friends I rode against have finished now, and I have the responsibility of a stable of horses. I hate having to organise runners when I’m riding too.
“Once I’m out there in a race I love it. You can never replace that buzz. It’s like a drug. It’s been the best experience ever.
“I didn’t intend to train, but I’ve got a great team behind me now and they make all the difference. Thanks to them I’m enjoying the job.”
Lewis did not end on a winning ride, but on the day she quit she trained a double on the card.
Hannah Lewis (pink colours on Shometheway) on her final ride (photo Carl Evans)