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Weighing up journeys of ten minutes or ten hours, Northumberland trainer Kate Leckenby is preparing to hit the road this weekend.
Keen to run her unraced four-year-old Idole Des Carnette (pictured above with his owner/trainer), Leckenby has entered the horse in a maiden race at her local course of Tranwell and also in the Goffs-sponsored GB Pointing Young Horse Maiden Series race at Maisemore Park in Gloucestershire. Being a fan of the series, which aims to promote young British point-to-pointers and bring them to the attention of licensed trainers, Leckenby’s first choice is Maisemore Park.
She says: “Tranwell is about four fields from here, so it does seem quite backward to be considering a ten-hour round trip instead. Paddy Barlow will ride him and he has advised me that it’s a super track [Maisemore]. Two Christmases ago I was down there for a day’s hunting with the Ledbury and hedge-hopped across the course, but it’s hard to visualise it now.
Hedge-hopping with the Ledbury: Leckenby on retired chaser Ferocious
“The four- and five-year-old bonus series is a great idea and I’m keen to support it.”
Introduced this season the GB Pointing Bonus Young Horse Maiden Series is being backed by auctioneers Goffs and Tattersalls Cheltenham which are sponsoring individual races, while the Levy Board with the backing of the British Horseracing Authority is putting up handsome bonuses for winners from the series. If they are successful in a developmental hurdle or chase within two years from a licensed British yard having been bred in Britain they are in line for a £25,000 bonus, while those bred overseas can pick up £15,000.
Leckenby, who rents a barn near Morpeth from trainer Simon Waugh, handles just two point-to-pointers, both four-year-olds, plus breakers and pre-trainers, although she is not averse to buying and training an older pointer. Five years ago she ran Ferocious in Aintree’s Foxhunters’ Chase under Joe Wright and the combination completed the course, albeit well behind winner Latenightpass. After Ferocious was retired from racing he carried his owner in several hunt rides and scurries and provided her with the aforementioned sighter of Maisemore Park during a hunting trip to the Ledbury country.
Leckenby and Joe Wright with Ferocious after his run in Aintree’s Randox Foxhunters’ Chase
Of the GB Pointing Bonus Series she says: “I became aware of it at the start of the season. I like playing around with young horses, but when I was riding in point-to-points I preferred to sit on horses who had run a few times. I wasn’t good enough to ride unraced babies, but it was my neck on my horses [she rode eight winners].
“It’s the dream to get a young horse, break it in and win a race. I was lucky enough to do that last season with Scairp Dubh, who won at Tranwell before I sold him privately.” Scairp Dubh has since won a hurdle race at Carlisle for Joel Parkinson and Sue Smith, and Leckenby says: “It’s nice to see them go on and do well for someone else.
“We’ve got to promote these British point-to-point winners. So many people are quick to say the Irish pointers are the best, and they do win lots of races, but they don’t all win and we have nice young horses in this country too, and often good value. The series is an incentive for owners to get involved in young pointers.”
She says of Idole Des Carnette, aka Dennis: “He’s a nice person, and they have to be like that because I do everything with them myself. He’s a good model, close coupled and with a bit of white on his nose – so many of my good horses have had that.
“I bought him privately last year after a friend of mine, Brad Wood at Ashbrooke Stud, took a look at the pedigree and said if I could afford him he was worth going for. I took him down to Revesby Park earlier this season [just the eight-hour round trip!] for an away day and to school him after racing. At that time of the season there wasn’t much opportunity to do that up here, and I stopped off at a friend’s house on the way home to give him a break.”
Leckenby was pleased to see Heart Wood win the Ryanair Chase at the recent Cheltenham Festival for like Idole Des Carnette he is a son of French stallion Choeur Du Nord. Little bits of luck and fortunate timing can make a difference when attempting to trade a four- or five-year-old, although a win at Maisemore Park against horses from some leading yards would be a proper game changer.
