Moments of the Season – Navanman

Over the last few weeks we have been looking back at the 2019/20 point-to-point season and highlighting some ‘Moments of the season’. This latest video in the series picks out one of the four wins of NAVANMAN during the campaign, which helped him on his way to the Connolly’s RED MILLS Champion Horse title…

We are off to the West Country for this week’s Moments of the Season, which shows action from a six-runner mixed open race at undulating Wadebridge.

Also the venue for the Royal Cornwall Show – which has been postponed from its June date to September 10-12 – Wadebridge rarely attracts big fields, but good horses run there and it plays an important role in helping engage the sport’s wheels at the start of the season. Its tilting landscape and uphill finish plays to the strengths of some horses and that proved to be true of Navanman, who won twice there in 2019/20 on his way to becoming Britain’s Connolly’s RED MILLS champion point-to-pointer.

Despite those wins, trainer John Heard says: “We’ve never considered it to be the course that most suits Navanman, for while it has an uphill finish the times are around six minutes 30 seconds, whereas at Chipley Park and Buckfastleigh they are more like seven minutes. However, we like going to Wadebridge because all three hunts which stage meetings look after you.”

In this week’s clip of film the Will Biddick-trained Hello George, ridden by Nathan Vergne, appears to have the upper hand as he and Navanman joust for the lead rounding the final turn. Yet the favourite digs deep under Darren Andrews, and despite conceding a 3lb penalty proves too good for his rival.

Trained by Heard in Devon for a partnership in which he, his wife Sandra and son Michael are involved, 11-year-old Navanman has won 11 point-to-points and been placed nine times from 22 starts since being sourced from David Pipe’s stable, albeit with the condition that he would not run under Rules, including hunters’ chases.

The horse has special meaning to Michael, a former point-to-point rider who now works at the family farm, and who suffered a heavy fall at Cheltenham’s November meeting in 2015 while a conditional jockey attached to Pipe’s yard. Knocked out and forced onto the sidelines with two fractured vertebra, Michael spent four months out of action until making the perfect return with a winning ride. The horse who carried him to victory, in a handicap hurdle at Wetherby, was Navanman.

Heard says: “We’ve always done well with horses we have bought from David Pipe, and since we didn’t pay a lot for Navanman we accepted the condition that he would stick to pointing. We hoped to travel him up to Chaddesley Corbett for the meeting just after Christmas, but it was abandoned due to waterlogging. The Lady Dudley Cup [also run at Chaddesley Corbett] might be one to consider next season – we wouldn’t be afraid to take good horses on.

“Navanman is out in a field now and doing really well. He doesn’t get fat or tucked up. He’s a gentleman to have around.”

Check out ‘Moments of the season’ each and every Wednesday.