Ace point-to-pointer Fumet returns over hurdles

High-class point-to-pointer and hunter chaser Fumet D’Oudairies makes a welcome return to racing this afternoon.

The nine-year-old (pictured above), who has been off the track for just over 20 months after sustaining a leg injury, runs in the opening race at Bangor-on-Dee, a novices’ hurdle (1.35) which has attracted 11 runners. Jack Andrews, claiming 3lb, takes the ride for Warwickshire trainer Tom Ellis who was handling point-to-pointers when Fumet D’Oudairies was last seen in action.

That was at Horseheath on New Year’s Eve 2022, when he beat the talented Ragnar Lodbrok in a men’s open race with Andrews was in the saddle. The previous May he had won the ladies’ hunters’ chase at Stratford under Andrews’ sister Gina, while in 2021 he won hunters’ chases at Leicester and Cheltenham’s evening meeting.

That was a fine return by a horse who had been picked up at Doncaster for just £800 when a four-year-old.

Note: Fumet D’Oudairies (11/1) finished second, beaten a length, by the Willie Mullins-trained favourite Fine Margin (11/8).