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Hannah Marshall is not the type of person to take it easy just a month away from giving birth for the first time.
Stable duties call at the Dorset yard which she runs with husband Charlie (the couple pictured above) and there are runners to ready for the coming weekend’s point-to-point meetings. The couple plan to run two at Cothelstone on Saturday, plus five-year-old Global Chalange in the GB Pointing Young Horse Maiden race at Buckfastleigh 24 hours later. He is one of 13 entries in a race which has attracted candidates from several yards which have a record of running four- and five-year-old pointers.
Global Chalange – whose name could be challenging for spelling pedants – joined the Marshalls four months ago having fallen on his sole start in an Irish point-to-point last year when based with trainer Tom Keating. Hannah said: “The plan is to run at Buckfastleigh, but we will have to see what the weather does. I wouldn’t want to run him in a bog. He’s a horse that moves very well and I don’t think he would want it very soft.
“David Phelan [bloodstock agent and Kent-based point-to-point trainer] helps us buy horses and he mentioned this one was for sale. He wasn’t terribly expensive, but he was a bit of a risk because he’d fallen on his run in Ireland and there wasn’t much to go on. We bought him unseen, and when he came off the lorry he looked rather small and thin, but we’ve given him time and he’s matured into a nice, strong five-year-old.
“He’s done plenty of schooling and I don’t think his jumping is a problem. He probably fell because he was weak, but now he jumps brilliantly, fingers crossed. He runs in the name of The Fun For All Syndicate, which involves a group of five local people. If he were to run well we would offer him for sale.”
Global Chalange, a son of Shade Oak Stud stallion Telescope, was bred in Britain, and should he win on Sunday or one of the other races in the GB Pointing Young Horse Maiden Series he would be eligible for a £25,000 bonus if he were to land a developmental hurdle or chase under rules within two years from a licensed yard in Britain. Horses bred outside of Britain who win races in the series are eligible for a £15,000 bonus. The money has been put up by the Horserace Betting Levy Board with the backing of the BHA and is aimed at putting a spotlight on young British point-to-pointers on their way to a career under rules.
With three winners and five placings from 13 runners this season the Marshalls’ yard is enjoying a good spell, and while mid-April promises to be a key time the couple are hoping their baby is not late to the party. A week after the due date Charlie hopes to be in America for another ride in the Maryland Hunt Cup, the $100,000 timber race which he won two years ago on the Joe Davies-trained Blackhall.
Sunday’s race is also the target for Fluffy Dice, a five-year-old son of stallion Capri and trained in Cornwall by Tim Dennis who is a firm fan of the GB Pointing Young Horse Maiden Series. He said: “It’s an incentive for people to go and buy a young store or two at Doncaster or over in Ireland, and then run them in British point-to-points. I think of it in the same way as pony racing, which took a while to get off the ground, but has since thrown up terrific riders like Sean and James Bowen and Harry Cobden.
“I think this series can do the same for young British pointers.”
Tim Dennis: ‘This series can do for point-to-pointing what pony racing is doing for jockeys’
Dennis comes from a family with no shortage of interest in racing. Thirty years ago his father, Walter, trained Coome Hill to win Newbury’s famous Hennessy Gold Cup [now Coral Gold Cup] in the colours of his wife Jill. Tim rode some 50 winners in point-to-points, his brother David was a professional jockey and is now a licensed trainer, while another brother, Michael, commentates on point-to-points in Devon & Cornwall and will be calling the horses at Buckfastleigh on Sunday.
Tim said of Fluffy Dice: “He ran in May last year at Flete Park on a hot day, when he pulled up before the last and collapsed. It was a bit of a freak and he was fine afterwards. I spoke to Graham Potts [veterinary surgeon] at length about it and he just felt it was fatigue.
“The break has done him no harm and he’s strengthened up, but he’s not been able to run until now because I’ve entered him and meetings have been called off, including the Buckfastleigh meeting last month. It would be nice if he could do a Crosspark, who I trained to win this same race [in 2015] and he went on to win the Eider Chase [at Newcastle when trained by current PPA chairperson Caroline Bailey].”
Other horses of interest include the Tom Scudamore-trained Admiral Oxo, who travelled to Alnwick last month and shaped with promise when fourth in another leg of the GB Pointing Series, while Josh Newman, who won two races in the series last weekend, has entered Good Shout and Maitre d’Oudairies, who are both unraced four-year-olds. Will Biddick has also entered a pair of newcomers in the shape of Lascar Collonges and Run Ruby Run, while the Chris Barber-trained Stick Season was a good third at Badbury Rings three weeks ago and the runner-up has won since.
Stick Season (James King) heads to post before finishing third at Badbury Rings last month (Ce)
Another one to note is Le Sazenay, an unraced five-year-old who is owned and trained by Gloucestershire-based licensed trainer Tom George. He is not afraid to explore opportunities in racing, as witnessed by the yard in France run by his son Noel and Amanda Zetterholm, and he clearly sees some mileage in the young horse series which was inaugurated at the start of this season.
Winners of a GB Pointing young-horse maiden race land a £25,000 or £15,000 bonus if subsequently successful from a licensed yard based in Britain in any of the following:
