Point-to-Point Focus

Catch up on the latest point-to-point focus column, which appeared in the Racing Post on Friday, January 31

Telephone technology meant I was able to witness a gripping finish to Saturday’s £100,000 Sky Bet Handicap Chase at Doncaster from a bar at Cheltenham.

Amid the clamour of drinkers and on a screen no bigger than a box of Swan Vestas it was the green and gold colours carried by winner OK Corral that caught the eye as we witnessed another great ride from Derek O’Connor, although we had no idea he had lost his whip or which horse had finished second.

After discovering the runner-up was Fingerontheswitch ridden by Miss Millie Wonnacott, 22, I became eager to watch a re-run of the race. Seven months ago Wonnacott rocked up at Britain’s final point-to-point meeting of the season at Umberleigh in Devon hoping to ride two winners and share the Fuller’s novice women riders’ title with Yorkshire’s Jess Bedi. She rode a winner and a second.

With a single winner this season she has moved her tally in points to 12 and her score under Rules to eight, yet in that absorbing conclusion to Doncaster’s big race there was little between her and O’Connor, a god of amateur racing with more than 1,200 winners and 11 national championships on the Irish pointing circuit, not to mention four Cheltenham Festival victories.

Reflecting on her part in Saturday’s race, Wonnacott says: “It sounds soppy, but I cannot believe there was me, from a little point-to-point background, riding in a big chase like that.

“It was great that the finish involved two amateurs, and to think that Brian Hughes was back in third. He and Derek are two of my idols, and to be in the same race was amazing. At the last fence I saw a stride and got a great jump, and was just hoping the other horse didn’t get one as good. I’d seen the colours and knew who it was.”

Wonnacott grew up near Devon’s south coast and has known fellow Devonian Bryony Frost since they were children. Her parents, David and Claire, rode over jumps, and while their daughter had opportunities in showing and show jumping as a teenager the racing options were limited. Her mother now trains one horse, Heaney, a 13-year-old who won an Exeter hunter chase at 25/1 in April and who could be a useful ally in Wonnacott’s bid to retain her lead in the women amateur riders’ title under Rules.

With plans to take in a conditional jockeys’ course in March the sport of pointing will soon lose Wonnacott, but she is another example of a rider who has benefited from being patient and staying on the circuit while waiting for doors to open. She has been with Bath trainer Neil Mulholland for three years, and says: “A year ago I was riding in point-to-points at weekends, then in the summer I rode a winner for Neil and started getting rides in midweek. Riding in races more regularly makes a huge difference. My jockey coach, Rodi Greene, has also been a big help.”

Wonnacott could be in action at Milborne St Andrew on Sunday unless booked to ride at Taunton, and a first Cheltenham Festival ride is very much in focus. Mulholland says the Ultima Chase is now on the agenda for Fingerontheswitch, adding: “He’ll also get an entry in the Grand National, although he would have to go up in the weights to get in. Millie will keep the ride – she’s done nothing wrong on the horse.”

Umberleigh to Aintree has a certain ring to it.