Racing Post P2P Focus

A chance to catch last week’s Racing Post point-to-point focus column, which was published on Friday, October 23.

After months of planning and negotiating Britain’s 2020/21 point-to-point season is set to open this weekend with meetings in Devon and Gloucestershire.

Tight restrictions will be in place at both venues and there will be no paying spectators, but an entry of 310 across the two meetings is evidence of a thirst for action. Trainers and owners did not want to miss an opportunity to run horses on what should be lovely jumping ground.

Fans forced to stay at home will be able to watch races via a live Facebook stream from both Bishops Court (PointingDC) tomorrow and Maisemore Park (Gloucester Races) on Sunday, while punters can place a bet subject to the placement of funds – further information via the aforementioned Facebook pages. Forty-eight hour declarations, introduced this weekend in order to remove a point of human interaction at the races, closed yesterday at both meetings, but the names will be kept under wraps until the traditional 45 minutes before each race. The aim is to prevent horses being withdrawn merely to avoid a fancied rival, but they can be taken out with a vet’s certificate or, once at the course, if the going changes significantly.

Some class acts are ready to roll at both meetings, perhaps the most significant newcomer being Jatiluwih, who climbed to a BHA rating of 148 when winning three hurdle races last season under owner/rider David Maxwell. Jatiluwih left Philip Hobbs in the summer and moved just ten minutes down the road to a yard run by Beth Childs.

Maxwell is currently sidelined with injury, but hopes Jatiluwih could be a horse for Cheltenham’s St James’s Place Foxhunter Chase. Childs, an ex-employee of Hobbs, and now running a pre-training and pointing yard, said on Wednesday: “I’m expecting to declare him for Bishops Court, and Will Biddick will ride. Jatiluwih is a dream horse, but I have to give other horses a few lengths when working because he does it so easily.”

Last season’s Connolly’s Red Mills champion point-to-pointer, the John Heard-trained Navanman, who won three races before the premature shutdown, is a possible rival to Jatiluwih. Heard, who is based near Okehampton, has also entered last season’s Jockey Club-sponsored champion novice mare Cottage Rose, a possible runner in the restricted race.

This contest opens a 20-race series sponsored by Print Concern, which is owned by one of point-to-pointing’s most passionate and enigmatic characters, Tim Underwood, who restricted himself to just one race-ride last season, but then he is 72. Entry fees up to £40 in all Print Concern races will be given to the NHS, and with 19 entered in the Bishops Court contest, that is £760 for a great cause.

There is a name change of note at both meetings this weekend, with that of former Foran Equine champion trainer Philip Rowley being replaced by his wife Mel. A key player at the family’s Shropshire yard, Mel is now responsible for Wishing And Hoping, a Catterick hunters’ chase winner last season and likely favourite for the mixed open at Maisemore.

Explaining the change, her husband (and new assistant), says: “Mel hopes to gain a licence one day, but despite her experience she has yet to train a winner, so she’s now in charge.”

Of Wishing And Hoping he says: “He’s in great form and ready to go, a bit earlier than we expected, but we wanted to run in case there’s a national lockdown.”

Without paying spectators the sport could not start were it not for the financial assistance provided by London’s The Oriental Club, Tattersalls Cheltenham and The Jockey Club. The Oriental Club’s owner-trainer race at Bishops Court has attracted a healthy 24 entries. Golden Tobouggan, owned and trained in Warwickshire by Julie Wadland and ridden by Jack Andrews, who won the men’s championship for the first time last season, could be the answer to a tricky contest.

Some potentially smart four- and five-year-olds have been entered in Tattersalls Cheltenham’s maiden races at both meetings. At Maisemore the race has been split, evidence of a growing place within British pointing for young horses, some having been bought to be sold on after a run to broadcast their talent.

The Rowley stable’s The Wrekin, a son of leading sire Shirocco and the mount of Alex Edwards, is worth noting in the second division.