Point-to-Point Focus

Catch up on the latest point-to-point focus column, which appeared in the Racing Post on Friday, Jan 10.

Some names rise off the page, as did Angus Cheleda’s after he stepped upon the racing scene in November 2016.

Before that month was out the then 17-year-old conditional jockey had ridden three winners from five rides for Colin Tizzard, a rapid start made more noticeable by a name which seems to combine a twist of Scottish and a dash of Spanish.

Yet Cheleda (pictured above at Larkhill, second from left) was as West Country as Tizzard himself, and like the trainer had been drawn to the horse through the hunting field in the Blackmore Vale. The hedges in that region resemble Becher’s Brook circa 1900, and when I put it to Cheleda that you need steel to ride across it he said: “I had a very good pony.”

Not that his conveyance was used for pony racing, and after joining Tizzard from school he became a conditional jockey rather than try point-to-pointing, a sport, which it transpired, was ready to catch him after a fall.

After the early hat-trick he failed to score again that season, or the next, and had just one winner last season until breaking his neck at Taunton in March.

“I lost my confidence after that,” he said, “and when Paul [Nicholls] offered me a position and the chance to become an amateur rider I took it. I’ll always be grateful to Colin for the opportunities he gave me, but I felt I could get more experience by changing jobs and riding in point-to-points.”

By joining Nicholls’ yard Cheleda also became associated with Rose Loxton, who trains pointers nearby. Loxton provided Cheleda with a victory on debut at Larkhill last month, and she served up two more for him at the same course on Sunday courtesy of Chameron – whose owners are Nicholls, his friend John Bolton and jockey Harry Cobden – and Shantou Flyer, last season’s St James’s Place Foxhunter Chase runner-up.

Giving up professional status could be seen as a retrograde step, but not by Cheleda, who said: “I’m really enjoying pointing – it’s more relaxed, there’s less pressure and more fun, and I know a lot of the lads in the changing tent having grown up with them. I work for Paul in the mornings and ride out for Rose at lunchtime, which makes for a long day, but it’s worth it.”

Stevens makes swift recovery

Alice Stevens, 21, was winded and pale after a final-fence fall at Larkhill on Sunday, and while a paramedic knelt alongside she wisely stayed on the floor to recover her breath.

Then the voice of stud owner Robert Chugg rang out. “Stay there, Alice,” he said, ducking under the rails. “I’ll give you the kiss of life.”

If Stevens had been seeing stars she had no wish to witness those twinkling in Chuggy’s eyes, and she leapt to her feet.

Alice Stevens kneels up after her Larkhill fall