Yorkshire trainers bid to repel challenge

A trio of Yorkshire trainers will be hoping to defy a strong challenge from south of the White Rose county when the GB Pointing Bonus Young Horse Maiden Series moves on to Sheriff Hutton on Sunday.

The fourth leg in a 15-race series and sponsored on this occasion by Tattersalls Cheltenham, it has attracted ten entries from some of Britain’s leading yards – plus one trainer who is set to saddle his first runner. Thomas Easterby, a member of Yorkshire’s famous racing family and with 16 point-to-point wins to his name as an amateur, is planning to saddle Rye’s Words, who he will also ride.

Fit from a family skiing holiday on the slopes of St Anton in Austria – during which time his sister, Emily, kept Rye’s Words ticking over back home at Habton Grange Stables, Easterby said: “I bought him as a store [£20,000] at Doncaster 18 months ago, broke him in at home and the plan was to run in the spring, but the ground became too firm.

Thomas Easterby, whose Rye’s Words could become his first runner as a trainer (Ce)

“His half-brother [Gintime] won on Boxing Day [maiden hurdle at Sedgefield], which was a nice little update. The plan is to sell him, but that’s easier said than done – he has to do it first.” Easterby described the bonus money attached to the series of young horse maidens as “a brilliant thing”.

Rye’s Words, a son of Coolmore stallion Order Of St George, was bred in Ireland. Should he win Sunday’s race he would be eligible for a £15,000 bonus if going on to land a developmental hurdle or chase under rules within two years from the stable of a licensed trainer in Britain. Had he been bred in Britain that bonus would rise to £25,000 – the series aims to shine a light on young point-to-pointers trained in Britain and to give them a higher profile should they be offered for sale.

Yorkshire-based runners in Sunday’s race are completed by Hydromatic, a British-bred son of Millenary trained by John Dawson for his father Christopher, and Jack Wooley, a son of Sholokhov who has been placed in two races this season from Jack Teal’s yard.

John Dawson, now a licensed trainer, but able to saddle Hyrdomatic who is owned and was bred by his father, Christopher (Ce)

Fans of BBC Radio 4’s The Archers will need no introduction to the name Jack Wooley, although Teal said it was chosen by owner Tony Lapping, of whom Teal said: “He’s not had horses for maybe 20 years, but now he’s retired and wants to get back into it.”

 Teal has not ridden this season, but expects to be back in the changing room at Sheriff Hutton with a possible four rides. He said: “My licence wasn’t sorted in time for the early meetings, and then I got buried on Christmas Eve and hurt my back, but I’m 100 per cent now.

“The ground was heavy when he [Jack Wooley] made his debut at Hexham [finished third] and then he got baulked coming up the hill at Alnwick [second to Azlad]. The winner could be smart.”

Jack Teal, who is based at Norton near Malton, expects to ride Jack Wooley in Sunday’s young horse maiden (Ce)

Gina Andrews, who trains and rode Azlad, is among a number of trainers heading north for the meeting and with entries in the Tattersalls Cheltenham-sponsored maiden. Andrews has entered L’Hybris Is Born, who looked the part when finishing close up behind the winner on debut at Chaddesley Corbett last month. The gelding dead-heated for third place with the Joe Hill-trained Barito, who is entered to renew rivalry.

Andrews has also entered Percy De Courcy and the mare Slay Girl, while fellow Warwickshire trainer Fran Poste has two in the race – Farfromaway and Laudable.

*Winners of a GB Pointing young-horse maiden race land one of the two bonuses if subsequently successful in any of the following:

• A class 1 hurdle or chase
• Any weight-for-age novice or maiden hurdle, or novice or beginners’ chase
• Any Class 2 or 3 novices’ handicap chase