Point-to-Point Focus

A chance to catch up on the latest Racing Post Point-to-Point Focus, which was published on Friday, April 16.

“It’s been a horrible spring,” says indefatigable Jim Squires, while mulling over the lot of ground staff who prepare Britain’s point-to-point courses, writes Carl Evans.

Squires is a big man whose glass is always full, not even half full, but even his resolve has been tested this week as he prepared the ground for tomorrow’s Lady Dudley Cup meeting at Chaddesley Corbett in Worcestershire. Speaking while driving a tractor, watering the course and eating his lunch, he says: “I’ve never known it this dry in April, and because it’s so cold nothing is growing. I’ve never watered a course wondering if it could freeze overnight. It was nippy on the fingers at seven o’clock this morning when I started watering – I hate to think how many tanker loads [of water] I’ve put on this week.”

Those who know Squires will trust him to achieve something close to the good ground which is his ambition. He says: “It does keep me awake at night worrying about it, but we’ve got a good reputation [for achieving decent ground] and we hope that means people will run their horses here.”

It has not been lost on Squires that tomorrow’s meeting starts at 10am in order to conclude before the funeral of Prince Philip, which means the handy hours of final preparation ahead of a 2pm start have been seriously shortened. Additional Covid-safety measures, plus the return this weekend of owners who have registered to attend – a move which requires a course’s viewing areas to comprise two zones – has added to the load, yet he says: “It will all come together – I don’t know how, but it will come together.”

Another Minella to note

Hertfordshire-based Catherine Featherstone has a 100 per cent training record she is putting on the line in tomorrow’s Lady Dudley Cup run at Chaddesley Corbett.

In a case of Davina against Goliath, Featherstone runs her only pointer, Minella Beat, who at Higham on Good Friday became a first point-to-point winner for her and her son Will, 16, who rode the eight-year-old. Keen to become a jockey, Will quit school after GCSEs and took a job with Jamie Snowden, for whom he has had one unplaced ride under Rules. However, the experience he gained in six years of pony racing means he is not completely green.

Of tomorrow’s challenge Catherine says: “We think Minella Beat has the ability, but he has bled [from the nose] in the past. He was out in a field at Jamie Snowden’s, and when Jamie heard we were looking for a horse for Will to ride he leased him to us. We just hoped that changing his regime in a much smaller yard would benefit him.

“He hacks out with other non-pointers and goes to the Links in Newmarket to work two or three times a week.”

Minella Beat’s tale is another example of the way in which pointing can give ex-Rules horses a prolonged career, but the Lady Dudley Cup is Britain’s most valuable point-to-point and a tough one to crack. None of Phil Rowley’s three entries, including Hazel Hill, is expected to run, but the Brad Gibbs-trained-and-ridden Premier Magic, a course winner on soft, will be hard to beat. Gibbs says: “I’ve always felt he is suited by quicker ground, and he’s really progressed this season.”