Overton gets thumbs-up on record day

We are all too busy to read long articles at Easter, so here are some point-to-point titbits to snack on between chocolate eggs during the holidays.

A version of this article first appeared in the Racing Post on Friday 29th March.

• Overton in Lanarkshire (pictured above) was the scene of a triumphant meeting late last month when it staged Britain’s most valuable point-to-point with £7,500 in prize money. Ninety-one entries became 60 runners with eight or more runners in five of the seven races.
• Gina Andrews, who last month took on responsibility for pointers trained at the Warwickshire yard hitherto run by husband Tom Ellis, notched a treble with her first three runners. However, they beat just five rivals on a Garthorpe card that was curiously thin on runners – a total of 19 lined up. She saddled another four winners over Easter.
• Devon trainer Dean Summersby celebrated four winners at Kilworthy on Sunday March 23rd, ending a lean run lasting more than a year. After racing, he went on social media to thank his family for putting up with him while the yard was under a cloud.
• Kilworthy is one of Britain’s most picturesque courses – the drive across Dartmoor to reach it is worth the admission fee alone. For those holidaying in the region later this season, it is worth heading to Cherrybrook, which is in an adjacent field.

Picturesque Kilworthy on Dartmoor – well worth a visit (Carl Evans)

• Britain’s point-to-point community is invariably happy to cheer one of its graduates when running under rules, but a double of unimaginable heights is brewing. Latenightpass, who has won nine point-to-points and three hunter chases, runs in the Grand National, while Sine Nomine, who has collected five point-to-points and four hunter chases, tackles the following Saturday’s Scottish National. That they are still in the yards where their careers kicked off means they are true representatives of the sport.
• The Easter weekend’s 16 fixtures were reduced by waterlogging to seven, but it is still a busy time in the Point-to-Point Racing Company’s office where entries and results are collated and published on pointtopoint.co.uk. However, staff might consider their predecessors who, 25 years ago, dealt with 13 Easter Saturday fixtures, 14 on the Bank Holiday Monday, plus two the following day. There were also six Easter hunter chases.
• Various championships are taking shape. In the men’s title race, James King leads Will Biddick by 35 to 26 with the rest out of sight, while in the womens’ championship Izzie Marshall has ridden 13 winners and leads Gina Andrews by two. Tim Vaughan’s son Ed appears to have the novice men’s title in his palm, but it is tight in the three trainers’ championships. In the category for yards with 15 or more horses Gloucestershire’s Max Comley is top with 17 winners, but former champion Alan Hill has had 15 winners, and has a series of ‘home games’ at courses near his Oxfordshire yard and  is a key danger to Comley, who says: “I’d love to win it and for a moment, when Tom announced his plans, I thought it might be straightforward, but in the last two weeks Josh Newman and Gina have both trained seven winners, and realistically I don’t think we have the firepower.”

James King, who heads the men’s championship (Carl Evans)