Christmas victories for past and present members of pointing field

Jack Tudor’s Coral Welsh National victory on Potters Corner highlighted a raft of successes for past and present British point-to-point riders and trainers at Christmas race meetings.

Riding for his boss, former point-to-point and professional jockey Christian Williams, Tudor – who won last season’s novice point-to-point championship for men (and is pictured above) – drove Potters Corner to victory over Truckers Lodge, the mount of fellow Welsh conditional jockey Lorcan Williams. With Bryony Frost finishing third and Adam Wedge and Matt Griffiths taking the next two places the first five home were all ridden by ex-British point-to-point riders.

Griffiths’ mount was the ex-pointer The Two Amigos, who ran a cracking race after trying to make all. He is trained by permit holder Nicky Martin, who also trains pointers.

Another winner on the Chepstow card was Bryan Carver, like Tudor a point-to-point rider until becoming a conditional jockey in the summer. Carver won a bumper on Getaround for trainer Ella Pickard, repeating a victory on the horse in a maiden race at Upcott Cross in April, also for Pickard’s stable.

Boxing Day results showed a win for amateur Millie Wonnacott on the Neil Mulholland-trained Runasimi River at Fontwell – Wonnacott finished second to Jess Bedi for last season’s novice women riders’ title – while Charlie Price scored on Bells Of Peterboro for Tim Vaughan at Market Rasen.

Amateur Tom Hamilton from Scotland, who works in Ireland for Joseph O’Brien, enjoyed a cracking Christmas period with a treble of bumper wins for his boss. Hamilton won on Risk Factor at Leopardstown on Boxing Day, on Fire Attack at Limerick on Saturday and on Eric Bloodaxe back at Leopardstown on Sunday.

Fellow O’Brien employee Oakley Brown, who hails from Yorkshire and was a star on the pony racing circuit, rode two winners at Limerick for the stable. Brown won on Assemble on Boxing Day and Fakir on Sunday.

Amateur rider Aaron Anderson was on the mark with a win on Coup De Gold in a maiden hurdle at Catterick on Saturday for trainer David Thompson, while Connor Wood won a handicap chase for amateur riders at Kelso on Sunday – he rode Samstown for Alistair Whillans.

Other Christmas winners included former British women’s point-to-point champion Bridget Andrews, who won Wetherby’s Castleford Chase on Marracudja, while ex-novice champion Connor Brace took a Kelso chase on Iwilldoit. Tom Lacey, who owns pointers, notched a Newbury double on Saturday with Fair Kate and Dorking Boy.

There were near misses for amateur rider Lucy Turner, who finished second on Didero Valis in Boxing Day’s Rowland Meyrick Chase at Wetherby for boss Venetia Williams, and for Kelly Morgan, who saddled Cuban Sun to finish second on his hurdling debut at Doncaster yesterday. Morgan trained Top Wood to win last season’s Randox Health Foxhunters’ Chase.

MBE for Disney

Amateur rider Guy Disney (pictured) was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List.

Disney, 37, who competes regularly in point-to-points and military races, was seriously wounded in a rocket attack in Afghanistan in 2009 while serving with the army and his leg was amputated. He fought back to return to race riding, initially on the point-to-point circuit, and became the first person to ride over Aintree’s Grand National fences with a prosthetic leg.

Disney received his honour for his services to horseracing, charity and polar expedition having also taken part in treks to the north and south pole.