Point-to-Point Focus

Catch up on the latest point-to-point focus column, which appeared in the Racing Post on Friday, January 3.

Britain’s hunter chase season commences on Tuesday at Taunton where the first of 88 such races is staged before the end of May.

Foxhunter Chases at the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals and on Stratford’s card in late May are the pinnacles, while an evening card of hunter chases at Cheltenham on May 1 is another significant magnet. Fontwell and Stratford also stage all-hunter chase cards.

With Cheltenham’s Foxhunter Chase closing on February 25 there is invariably a scramble in a handful of stables to get a horse qualified for that £45,000 contest, and while there is time in which to win two open point-to-points or finish first or second in two hunter chases there is no time for hiccups. Last season’s influenza scare came out of the blue and spoilt a few plans, and flood or frost is a possible factor at this time of year.

Dan Skelton’s assistant Nick Pearce, who has taken charge of Grade One-winning chaser Don Poli, is in that position, and while his new recruit scored comfortably at Alnwick recently he needs another win to join the Festival line-up.

Already qualified are Hazel Hill (pictured above) and Shantou Flyer who were first and second at Cheltenham last season and are set to clash again at Larkhill on Sunday. Hazel Hill’s Shropshire-based trainer Philip Rowley says: “I’m desperate to run him at Larkhill, and feel the track will suit him.” Hazel Hill is entered at Taunton, but so is his stablemate, Wishing And Hoping, another Foxhunter candidate who relished heavy going when romping a point-to-point at Ffos Las recently. He won on better ground when with Alan King.

Shantou Flyer’s owner/rider David Maxwell has moved his horse to Somerset-based Rose Loxton, who says of the nine-year-old: “I don’t know him that well, and he’s quirky, but you can see why he finished second in a Foxhunter. David is keen to run him in a point-to-point so he goes to Larkhill.”

Loxton won the champion hunter chase trainers’ title last season and she appears to have a stronger hand this time. In addition to Shantou Flyer she trains Earth Leader, who won hunter chases at Fontwell and Stratford in the spring, and the dual Punchestown winner Caid Du Berlais. The trio could all run at Cheltenham.

Earth Leader is owned by Roger Penny, whose Earthmover won the 1998 Foxhunter Chase as a seven-year-old when ridden by a teenage Joe Tizzard. Six years later Earthmover tackled the race again with the same result under Rilly Goschen.

Loxton’s yard also houses Monsieur Gibraltar and Virak, who won six hunter chases between them last season – Virak runs in Larkhill’s ladies’ open under Natalie Parker.

David Kemp’s Norfolk yard has two potential Foxhunter Chase runners in Caryto Des Brosses, who made Hazel Hill work overtime for a Cheltenham win in May, and Law Of Gold. Kemp is an arable farmer who has no all-weather gallop, but fashions a training surface out of the soil with a chain harrow, a system which serves him well. Seven-year-old Law Of Gold, who won Stratford’s point-to-point.co.uk Champion Novices’ Hunters’ Chase, joins Earth Leader as the best young prospects to topple the old guard, although Marcle Ridge is another of that age worth noting.

A half-brother to Nicky Henderson’s promising novice hurdler Shishkin, Marcle Ridge carries the colours of his breeder, Clive Bennett. Point-to-points at Buckfastleigh and Barbury are on Marcle Ridge’s agenda before Cheltenham says rider/trainer Sam Jukes.

Taunton entries include Buck Dancing, trained in North Yorkshire by rider Jess Bedi, and Paul Nicholls’ pair Alcala and Captain Cattistock. The last-named has joined Maxwell’s string, as has Bob And Co, an interesting recruit to hunter chasing from Gaby Leenders’ stable in France, and now also under Nicholls’ care.