THE PERFECT START TO SUMMERVILLE'S AUTUMN YEARS

York & Ainsty and West of Yore point-to-point at Askham Bryan College, February 2nd.  And proof again, were ever it needed, that whilst form is temporary class is permanent.  

A month shy of the seventh anniversary of his Supreme Novices' Hurdle success at the Cheltenham Festival, Summerville Boy demonstrated that all working parts are still very much functioning en route to a comfortable Mens Open success on his first foray between the flags.

It's fair to suggest that racing for a couple of hundred quid around a tiny course hard up against the A64 won't have figured anywhere on his career plan - not even as recently as last season, when still placing in Graded staying hurdles company in Ireland.  It's also fair to suggest the mere presence of one with such recent back class lining up at this level can leave the purists banging their heads against the wall.

At thirteen years of age, however, and following defeats in his last eleven tilts at Listed or higher company, the son of Sandmason had more than earned his right to enjoy a somewhat easier assignment.  

Rather like the previous most recent former Festival winner I'd seen between the flags, My Way De Solzen at Tabley back in 2013, Summerville Boy - reportedly a kind, gentle friend to Henry de Bromhead during some dark times previously - still exudes an aura of quality, and is neither humiliating himself, nor being humiliated, in his new vocation.  

Not the first former Roger Brookhouse-owned top-notcher to enter the care of Charles Clark (Black Op did likewise), a suitably kindly, light pointing itinerary based around Opens and - possibly - the Holderness Members at Dalton Park isn't hard to foresee.

Incidentally, whilst the 5-2 about Ideal Du Tabert at Sheriff Hutton eight days ago might take some beating for betting rick of the season, anyone trusting in the proven enduring ability of Summerville Boy over the recency bias of Paul Marvel's Knightwick conditions success will have been very, very happy indeed to avail themselves of the 11-8 about the former.

Paul Marvel's eclipsing at odds on comprised one plank of a frustrating afternoon for pointing's pre-eminent wallflower Joseph O'Shea, back with his name above the proverbial (or actual) door following a retirement even Status Quo would consider brief.  The minutiae of the backstory concerning his return have been sufficiently played out in (and in part deleted from) one corner of cyberspace already, and need concern only those involved.  

There was the solace for him of one winner, at least, and if Barton Snow isn't - by one owner's admission - the right physical specimen for the Cheltenham Intermediate Final, come later in May he might line up massively overqualified to land his other target of the Restricted Final around the appreciably more suitable Stratford.

O'Shea's trio comprised three of the nine runners from well outside of the hosting Yorkshire Area, a figure which between them accounted for almost a third of the final total of 30 runners.  A poor return, at first glance, considering Milborne St Andrew down in Dorset boasted runner after runner across a ten race marathon the same day; but actually riches indeed given an initial entry of just 52 (comprising 45 individual horses) and the competiton for some of the same animals from Garthorpe, which ultimately drew slightly fewer starters.

The wisdom of two fixtures not a million miles apart on the same day each featuring an Intermediate and no Restricted can be pondered over at leisure, likewise whether Askham Bryan's sometime propensity for variable grass cover serves as a deterrent for some connections (more fool them - today's surface was lush, full and the best I've ever seen in the course's eleven-season existence).

Even so, what to make of the fact that just the second fixture of the Yorkshire season drew such a small initial entry (evidently sufficiently above the threshold below which a meeting is not permitted to take place, but by how many?), and was grateful to long-distance travellers to prop it up?  

That Askham Bryan stands as the sole remaining short-runners' track in Yorkshire following Easingwold's demise just adds to the mystery (Hutton Rudby is sharp and quirky, but also a seven minutes-plus course granted any cut in the ground).  Connections of local horses which don't truly stay three miles ordinarily (and heaven knows they exist) should be targeting both fixtures here to the exclusion of almost anything else.

Such Yorkshire animals as did turn out didn't go unrewarded on the day.  Far from it; two fine local racing families helped themselves to the pair of Maidens.  Hollywood Harmon (a mare, so likely not named in tribute to NCIS mainstay Mark) got Alexander Wilson, son of highly popular Fawdington handler Cooper, off the mark for this term when finding the combination of a sharper 2m4f and drying ground transformative - ergo the previous point.  

Similar all-the-way tactics garnered success in the 3m equivalent for Titanium Bullet, Felix Foster (son of Jo, grandson of Peter) writing another entry in the family history with a first winner on his fourth senior ride. 

In the same week as two Welsh points later this term were cancelled, with organisers citing the dearth of horses certified for points in the principality (not even into the forties in total), the visibility of these new horses and riders for Yorkshire is at once both encouraging and nothing to take for granted.  

The hope has to be the well isn't already threatening to run dry a week into February.  The entries for the Duncombe Park fixture a fortnight hence will, one feels, prove highly informative.