Point-to-Point Focus

Catch up on the latest point-to-point focus column, which appeared in the Racing Post on Friday, March 6.

Rose Loxton visited a hairdresser’s last week for the first time in a year, and says: “It was quite emotional.”

Not that the grandmother to four girls has a phobia about scissors, but after a year of highs and lows it was another uplifting step on a challenging journey. A week today (Friday, March 13) she is set to saddle three runners in the St James’s Place Foxhunter Chase, little more than 12 months since suffering a horrifically broken leg while riding out. That accident possibly saved her life, for tests while under medical care revealed cancer.

In the months of treatment that followed – chemotherapy leading to hair loss and debilitating nausea – her husband Sam stepped up and kept their Somerset yard ticking over so effectively that his wife became Britain’s champion hunter chase trainer with eight wins. That tally did not include a second victory for her stable’s Caid Du Berlais in Punchestown’s Champion Hunters’ Chase.

Then at Christmas she suffered a heavy cold and decided that after 14 years of happy employment with Paul Nicholls, during which time she looked after Big Buck’s, it was asking too much to continue riding out there while looking after a yard of pointers at home. She says: “I was overdoing it, and had to accept it was time to cut down.”

Of her Foxhunter hopefuls she says: “I fear the ground is going to be softer than ideal for Caid Du Berlais – that and the distance of the race. He jumps the last and then it’s the hill, and he doesn’t quite get home, but he ran a super race in it when third two years ago.

Rose Loxton with Monsieur Gibraltar (left) and Foxhunter hope Caid Du Berlais

“Shantou Flyer (pictured main photo above with Loxton) seems in great form and won well at Fakenham recently. David [Maxwell, his owner/rider] thinks he’s better than ever. He’s an older horse, and they can be quirky, so we’re hoping a change of scene has done him good [he was trained by Richard Hobson last season]. He hit a flat spot in last year’s race, then ran on to finish second.

“Earth Leader was still a maiden at this time last year, so he’s done well to go up the ranks and win two hunter chases. He was well beaten at Wincanton by Virak [his stablemate], but the ground wasn’t ideal and Angus [Cheleda] wasn’t hard on him. Good ground would suit him better.”

With Cheleda riding the Nicholls-trained Alcala in the Foxhunter, Earth Leader becomes the mount of Natalie Parker, one of a small group from Nicholls’ yard who take the 15-minute drive each lunchtime to join Loxton in exercising her eight-horse string.

Apart from Shantou Flyer and a maiden owned by the Loxtons each horse has come from Nicholls. Rarely seeing an all-weather gallop, exercising on rolling grass fields, and racing at a lower level has given them all new zest. They suit Loxton, who says: “At our age we wouldn’t want a lot of young horses, and don’t have the facilities anyway.”

Sweetening up older horses, in a playground of undulating Somerset hills, is her forte.