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Britain’s first race in the GB Pointing Bonus Young Horse Maiden Series made an outstanding start at Lower Machen in South Wales yesterday when drawing ten runners and an impressive winner.

Baron Du Brizais (11/2), an imposing four-year-old ridden by national men’s champion James King and owned and trained just five minutes from the town of Warwick by Luca Morgan and his partner Paige Topley, led over the second-last fence and ran out a ready winner by six lengths. Sean O’Connor rode the Tom Lacey-trained Docket Man (3/1f) into second place, three lengths ahead of the Ed Doggrell-ridden Peter De l’Orme (8/1) from Chris Barber’s stable.

Morgan said of Baron Du Brizais: “We bought him at the [Goffs] Arkle Sale last year [€15,000] and have always liked him – he’s been very straightforward. His sire, Nirvana Du Berlais, has done nothing but go up the ranks as a stallion since, which has been a positive.

“We were keen to run this horse in the spring last season, but the ground became too quick. It’s been a long summer waiting for this opportunity. He’s schooled very well and is a fantastic jumper, as we all saw today, particularly for a big horse. He’s big, but not a lump, and while he’s still young and nearly 17 hands he has plenty of speed and stays well.

Luca Morgan, who saddled Baron Du Brizais to win the first in the young horse series

“We can’t afford to buy pedigrees [horses by proven high-class stallions and mares] and when we bought this one Nirvana Du Berlais hadn’t fully come onto the scene, so his stock were affordable. Dan Astbury [bloodstock agent] saw this one in the catalogue and showed him to me at the sales and we decided we couldn’t leave him there.”

Morgan said of Baron Du Berlais’s rider: “James is a big help to us. He does a lot of work with our young horses and comes in and rides out several times a week. Paige rides this horse every day, but James got on him to do the schooling.”

The imposing Baron Du Brizais and joint-owner Paige Topley, holding flowers presented by the meeting’s organisers

The winner is now set for a date at public auction, and while Tattersalls Cheltenham is staging its annual November sale on Friday it is thought Baron Du Brizais will head to the Goffs UK Coral Gold Cup Sale on Saturday, November 29. Having won yesterday’s race – which was sponsored by the Point-to-Point Authority – he will be sold with the carrot of a £15,000 bonus that will be given to his buyer when their purchase wins a developmental race under rules. Bred in France, he would have been offered with a £25,000 bonus had he been bred in Britain.

Baron Du Brizais is a son of Nirvana Du Berlais – whose oldest progeny are just six and who is sire also of Nicky Henderson’s exciting novice chasing prospect Lulamba – out of the Sinndar mare Sinopsy. Her offspring include the four-time winner Surin who was trained by Gordon Elliott to win a Gr.3 hurdle race and be placed at Gr.1 level.

Dunsmore In Devon stages the next race in the GB Pointing Bonus Young Horse Maiden Series a week on Sunday.

The series and its bonuses are backed by the British Horseracing Authority and Horserace Betting Levy Board and aim to highlight young British point-to-pointers and generate interest in them when they are offered for sale. Auctioneers Tattersalls Cheltenham and Goffs UK have backed the idea by sponsoring this season’s remaining 14 races between them.

Winners of a GB Pointing young-horse maiden race land bonuses of £25,000 or £15,000 if subsequently successful in any of the following:

  • A class 1 hurdle or chase
  • Any weight-for-age novice or maiden hurdle, or novice or beginners’ chase
  • Any Class 2 or 3 novices’ handicap chase