FOR THE LOVE OF HELMSLEY, COME POINTING

Helmsley races, or the Sinnington point-to-point (whatever your preference) at Duncombe Park, Sunday, February 16th.  Two days after Valentine’s Day this year, and if a spirit of love wasn’t all pervading, at least it wasn’t in entirely short supply.

With love, however, must also come loss.  News of Irish pointing graduate and Rules star in the making Michael O'Sullivan's tragic passing, ten days after taking a fall at Thurles, had filtered through the wires on raceday morning.  

The wearing of black armbands in tribute was honoured by far more jockeys than not, the observing of a minute's silence by racegoers likewise.  Given the unavoidably short notice, this was a sterling and heartfelt effort from those in attendance, with the passing of Keagan Kirkby closer to home just a year and a fortnight earlier unlikely to have been far from many minds. 

Helmsley itself loves pointing.  It must do – it’s happily tolerated the invasion of its pretty market square by horseboxes and punters for pretty much exactly fifty years now.  Hosted at Oswaldkirk before that course’s closure compelled it to a few nomadic years around the likes of Whitwell-on-the-Hill and Charm Park, the Sinnington landed at Duncombe Park, stately backdrop and all, on March 15th 1975 and has had no cause to leave since.  Its status as the fourth oldest surviving track in the area is nothing to take for granted.

Horsemen and women generally love Duncombe Park sufficiently to keep the initial entry healthy year in, year out, and here again a low-100s intake translated into 66 runners on the day, 67 if a kick-induced withdrawal before one race is still counted.  Nobody should, of course, get carried away considering what numbers any popular Yorkshire point could return a generation ago, but with eight races all told and six offering places on third this genuinely felt like a hitherto stuttering local season was finally underway.

Mixed Open scorer Camdonian also loves Duncombe Park.  Then again, Camdonian loves most places he’s been sent pointing thus far, the claiming this time of two major scalps in Go Go Geronimo (thus exacting revenge for Charm Park last May) and Summerville Boy taking his tally between the flags to seven wins from nine and augmenting a Conditions level success here in 2024.  Not bad for a mid-110s maiden hurdler for Dan Skelton previously.

Days like this stave off the lure of retirement just that little bit longer for investment banker and bona fide Corinthian Christy Furness; and considering Camdonian is a better animal now than that which popped round safely enough under him for fourth in the Intermediate Final at Cheltenham in 2023, one would assume plans work towards another (final?) visit to jumps HQ in the spring, Monbeg Chit Chat’s victory there in 2021 ripe for supplementing.

Camdonian’s current handler Jack Teal probably loves technology.  Or more specifically, the iPad camera at the disposal of the Duncombe Park judges which allowed them to discern and award quite possibly the first nose verdict in the history of a Yorkshire point (write in if you know different), and to do so in the favour of Teal’s generously priced newcomer Appy Chappy, partnered by sister Lois, in the bumper.  

Mere days before Teal’s Brocklesby Park winner Mooserwirt would be knocked down to Dan Astbury at the Tattersalls Cheltenham February event, the value of a number one next to the name of potentially the next cab off the rank sales-wise (a half-brother to Veterans’ race third Zhiguli, entirely coincidentally) won’t have been lost on those concerned.

For those inclined to blind back Teal family newcomers (only me?) in Maidens or pointing Flat races, meanwhile, it added another ten points to a credit column never fully depleted all these years since Jack booted home his mother’s 50-1 debutant Burtredgipandgump at this very venue in 2014.

Dale Peters evidently loves Yorkshire, too.  And, it’s probably not unreasonable to suggest, Yorkshire loves him back.  A double with two inmates that haven’t been easy in their respective ways once again laid bare his considerable training skills for all to see.

Possibly the animal that would appear were you to ask Google Gemini to represent triumph of perseverance in horse form, Wereinthistogether’s facile success in the Restricted came on just a second start since tipping up on debut all of 39 months prior and 22 since breaking his maiden.  A bill of health clean enough for long enough to permit a sequence of runs from here on is the least horse and connections deserve.

Line Em Up, meanwhile, had gone from upsides to stopping to nil on a slightly troubling debut the previous spring, and if merely proving to be the least remote dot on the horizon when Ideal du Tabert battered everyone at Sheriff Hutton last month, here in victory in one leg of the split Maiden was the most irrefutable proof that Peters has successfully plugged whatever hole the son of Balko may or may not have had in him.

It’s worth reiterating the point that Peters doesn’t come up north in search of soft races.  Far from it; there are plenty of those to aim at closer to a Sawtry base better placed to mop up in East Anglia and the Midlands.  Nobler instead to test himself, and some of his good animals, against the best that Yorkshire and environs have to offer, and this is recognised and respected locally.

Twelve Yorkshire pointing winners for the rider-trainer in the past eight years, all shared around competitive fixtures at Sheriff Hutton, Duncombe Park and Charm Park, and you can be sure there’ll have been some vicarious pleasure up here in the achievements of Grade 1 novice hurdle second Miami Magic and Catterick standing dish Omar Maretti subsequent to their bountiful days between the local flags.

Whether it’s realistic to expect Jump On Board to achieve anything similar in points - let alone transcend them - is questionable, the nephew of Prix du President de la Republique second Enfant Roi having failed seven times in Ireland despite Derek O’Connor’s assistance more often than not, and trailing home last of seven finishers behind the aforementioned Line Em Up on this British debut, one and a half fences behind the sixth.

The smiles in the unsaddling area afterwards told you what this meant to first-time pointing rider Jet Williams Wynn, however.  A senior chartered surveyor and sometime eventer, with competitions at two defunct pointing venues in Weston Park and Upper Sapey on her portfolio, Jet sat up with the pace for a mile, set out her stall for a safe completion thereafter, and achieved just that.

Even in the prevailing climate where fewer such exist, it’s worth finishing on the thought that there are still people such as Jet willing to have a go at point riding… purely for the love of it.

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.

BRINGING HOME THE SILVERWARE ON A DAY FREE OF FEAR

Thirteen days ago, a mixed round of jumping by Grangeclare Diego at Charm Park had culminated in Paddy Barlow's unseat five from home and, you'll recall, a mammoth delay whilst medical services attended to the unconscious jockey amid a hushed and concerned atmosphere.

Fast forward to today, and here we all are watching the same Grangeclare Diego swagger into the winner's enclosure at the Hurworth point-to-point at Hutton Rudby, having not touched a twig all the way round under the same Paddy Barlow.

A quite extraordinary example of pointing's perpetual gift for effecting turnrounds in fortunes, this; one mirrored further by Buster Valentine, on whom Paddy had won 35 minutes before his Charm Park spill, decking him 35 minutes after today's victory (rider thankfully unscathed this time).

Points of interest were not hard to find on a day when two-thirds of the horses that could have turned up thankfully did, and the rain that also could have turned up politely waited until the final race was concluded.

Isobel MacTaggart and Katriona Brown recorded first career riding successes, whilst John Dawson dug deep to secure the opener on Mount Mews as if the previous day's exertions at Cheltenham had taken nothing out of him.

The Hurworth qualified Sine Nomine was, to the best of my knowledge, nowhere to be seen. The magnificent cup she won, however, was. Yesterday's victory was very much one by, for, and to be enjoyed and shared with, Yorkshire pointing.

A final observation. In a chat with the excellent Mike Crolla between commentaries, we recalled that the 2020 renewal of this fixture had fallen just three days before the entire country was placed in lockdown (indeed, this was my first return visit since).

The atmosphere that day had been tangibly shot through with a sense of sadness, uncertainty and - if we're all honest about it - fear of a kind I'd never sensed on a racetrack before, and perhaps never will again.

That it has been possible to renew my acquaintance with Skutterskelfe Park liberated from any such foreboding has given me more pleasure today than I am perhaps able to convey adequately here. May we all live long before our sport experiences anything similar or the same once more.

WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEENS, AND WHAT THANKFULLY WEREN'T

If anyone were still uncertain as to why some pointing fixtures in this part of the world try to raise skiploads of money for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance service every year, the rapid scrambling of its helicopter to aid the stricken Paddy Barlow at this afternoon's Yorkshire Area Jockeys point-to-point fixture at Charm Park ought to have put the matter beyond doubt.

With the tragic recent passing of Keagan Kirkby at Charing still fresh in the mind, anyone could have been forgiven as the minutes ticked by for fearing serious injury had befallen Paddy following his unseating from Grangeclare Diego in the Restricted. The news this evening, mercifully, is broadly positive.

Just thirty-five minutes earlier Paddy had enjoyed victory aboard the Milburns' new recruit Buster Valentine in the Mens Open. Only an hour before that, William Brown had somehow escaped unscathed from a horror incident in which he'd been dragged over 100 yards along the ground, foot still trapped in stirrup.

Such are the vacillations of fate in a sport we all love but need ultimately concede will forever remain untameable, all safety measures notwithstanding.

The afternoon's dramas inevitably resulted in delays, and the concluding contest was run under a sky containing more deep purple than the heavy metal racks at [insert name of surviving high street music store here].

It could have been run at 2am with headlights mounted on the horses for all connections of Duke Account minded, however, the brave homebred emerging on top in a four-way go to add an Intermediate to previous gains for stalwart local owner Charles Brader and family.

(Whether critical to the outcome or not, the jockey on runner-up Fire In Her Eyes may appreciate another go at riding the final 20 yards or so. No more need be said).

A word at this point for Charlotte Russell, one of Charles Brader's daughters, the brains and public face of Go Racing in Yorkshire's many highly effective marketing campaigns under Rules, and - as was again evident at Charm Park today - the absolute gold standard by which all point-to-point meeting announcers should be judged. Only sometime Midlands counterpart Felicity Vero has come close in recent years.

Another Charlotte caught up with on a visit back up north was Charlotte Fuller, wife of Richard (also present) and mother of top jockey Page (elsewhere). Cue much reminiscing over the much-missed Hackwood Park, where I more or less had a residency as racereader from 2007-11 and where the curation of an excellent racing surface often met with less reward in terms of runners than was strictly fair.

The Fullers were also happy to provide an update on their former mainstay Moscow Blaze, recipient of a retirement rather less eventful than a racing career punctuated by, among many incidents, a fractured skull and an adder bite which temporarily turned one leg to mush. I'm not sure what gods racehorses have to upset to meet with such mishap, but Moscow evidently narked them all.

NOTHING TO FRET ABOUT AS PETER LANDS A (W)RIGHT TOUCH

Given the sea fret that started (and indeed bookended) today in Scarborough, the last thing I was expecting at the Derwent point-to-point at Charm Park this afternoon was sunburn. And yet... and yet...

If nothing about the forecast presaged such a warm, pleasant day, then the reports of the work gone in to repair the course since the last raceday here made the immaculate surface slightly less of a surprise, if no less appreciated. The only occasion I've seen better anywhere all season was... here, in March.

In no time, Charm Park has reclaimed its right to be regarded as an exemplar pointing venue, its stock rising again dramatically just as that of the likes of, say, Thorpe Lodge and Dingley takes a bit of a dip. A huge well done to all concerned.

A total of 33 runners on the day might well have been better had more connections understood whether their horses were actually eligible for the Northern Novice Championship; it's likely a goodly number were.

The need to make this clear enough to avoid a repeat of today's two-runner renewal - Grenadine Save and Flashy Kate additionally hailing from the South Midlands and East Anglia respectively rather than locally - is already acknowledged by the one Point-to-Point Racing Company staffer I spoke to this evening.

Elsewhere on the card, it was one of those days to give those remaining owner-trainers sufficient encouragement to stick with the sport - plenty haven't.

Iana Stoyantcheva may have decided raceriding wasn't for her a mile into her first ride aboard Darius Des Sources at Dalton Park, but her fine grey has got her into the winner's enclosure twice now even so, victory today despite a 10lb penalty suggesting he may be good enough to bridge the class gap if campaigned in Opens next term.

Thomas Labeille *is* still owner-trainer-ridden, and although ostensibly exposed after a season taking in everything from Maidens to Opens, Leah Cooper's charge is at his most compelling at the 2m4f trip he skated home over today - a detail not lost on visiting Point-to-Point Authority supremo Peter Wright.

Considering the easy manner, determination and courtesy with which he has addressed all stakeholders' concerns about pointing these past few years, and navigated the sport through the treacherous waters of two lockdown-enforced interruptions with far less damage incurred than anyone had the right to expect, I doubt too many people will have begrudged Peter if he availed himself of some of the 11-1 to be had in places.

And with that, both Yorkshire's and my own 2022-23 pointing campaign in all probability come to a close, five weeks before the end of the season but with nothing booked between now and then. It has, as nearly always (some will know I wouldn't want to relive 2012-3 in a hurry), been an absolute joy. Summer well, friends, and see you again soon.

OF NEW ARRIVALS, THE DEARLY DEPARTED, AND SCARING A CHAMPION

It's not always a case in life of build it and they will come, but those who have invested a huge amount of effort in today's sophomore running of the Yorkshire Area Jockey Club point-to-point fixture can feel justifiably delighted at the outcome.

Charm Park is, as many will know, the pointing venue where it all began for me nearly a quarter of a century ago, and in all that time I can seldom if ever remember the place feeling so well looked after. Those still-permanent fences redressed (rebuilt in three cases, I understand?) and presented as big and inviting, and the autumn's sizeable reseeding exercise giving rise to a truly outstanding racing surface - the best he'd seen all season, if a quote from Tom Ellis is taken as gospel.

A runner turnout of 51, inclusive of a 15-runner Maiden, on a six-race card is well worth bigging up set against the prevailing narrative of a small horse pool and prohibitively dry conditions elsewhere; and if the circumstances were arguably a little fortunate, a win in the youngsters' race for fixture co-organiser Rory Bevin nevertheless struck me as ample reward.

An intriguing day's racing included no fewer than two what might have beens for the home team. A tidier jump at the last would have seen local mainstay Royal Chant lower the colours of none other than reigning Aintree hero Latenightpass, the latter pitching so erratically to the right at many fences that you'd have to hope something explicable but not serious came to light subsequently (a lost shoe or similar, maybe).

Thirty-five minutes later, there was a perceptible exhalation of disappointment from many present as Jetaway Joey similarly nailed Fascinating Rhythm in the dying strides, the last-named's rider as usual sporting the colours of the now late Alice Easterby.

In a week which reminded us that even the most enduring Yorkshire racing dynasty of them all is not immune to the perpetual cycle of life and death, with the world welcoming little Heidi Scutt just two days before her great-grandmother Alice passed away (and I'm delighted to learn the two did get chance to meet), no success would have been more poignant.

Well worth forgoing for once the beach, arcades and fish 'n' chips the rest of the family was enjoying down the road, though at the same time it was a joy to have them with me on the trip to and from Scarborough today.

REMEMBERING A GOOD EGG AT UTTOXETER

A week of racing staged in - for the greater part – very warm and sunny conditions came to an end at Carlisle, Pontefract and Uttoxeter today, and it was the action at the last-named that jogged my memory about one of the most amusing pieces of racing telly I think I’ve ever seen, or likely ever will.

Wasn’t it about this time ten years ago, I thought, that Robert Cooper had visited Uttoxeter on a rather hotter raceday than today, frying pan in hand, and proceeded to try to fry an egg on the floor of the paddock or public area – and more or less succeeded?

Indeed it was.  A quick bit of research later confirmed that the anniversary had just passed, but also that my memory of a hot day hadn’t become exaggerated and embellished at all with the passing of time.  July 2006, the Met Office website advises, was the warmest day on record for much of England and Wales, with temperatures reaching their highest in many places on Wednesday 19th, the day of Sir Bob’s Uttoxeter visit.

A specific temperature for the course that day still evades me at the time of writing this, but Met Office maps would place a conservative estimate of temperature for that corner of Staffordshire at 32 degrees, and possibly closer to 34.  No wonder Cooper's attempt got as far as it did.  

Opportunities to pause for breath during the working day at the Sportsman were few and far between, but with monitors covering all racing channels within eyeshot it was impossible for some of us in the racing office not to be drawn for a while to the sight of Attheraces’ king of whimsy trying to score himself his impromptu late cooked breakfast.

It was hilarious, inventive, original programming, and you’d almost wish another heatwave upon a day of racing covered live by ATR, if only to see how the same protagonist might fare repeating the exercise with a link of sausages.

(Not that the news it was hot outside was a revelation to us down in Hammersmith, you understand, as London was a good few degrees hotter and certainly stuffier than Uttoxeter, and the completely glass-panelled Sportsman office amplified the heat to a degree that even the aircon couldn’t cope with entirely adequately.  Put any typos in my copy back then down to hot, sweaty, slippery keyboards inducing mistakes – that’s my story, at least).

It's doubtless that concern will have been raised in the run-up to the meeting, and certainly during it, that conditions had tipped too far for racing to proceed safely, not least as Uttoxeter’s jumps card – inclusive of a novice chase and handicap hurdle each run over as far as three miles – compelled horses to run further and carry an awful lot more weight than their Flat contemporaries at Catterick and Lingfield on the same afternoon in the unprecedented, searing heat.

Sometimes, however, we don’t trust our sport’s human participants enough to do the right thing by their equine accomplices in potentially trying situations.

Ten out of 50 runners across the six races were pulled up, most of them in lieu of being forced further by their riders on a hot day in a lost cause; 27 horses came out of their respective races well enough to be able to race again no later than the end of the following month, so within six weeks; and nothing paid the ultimate price.

And there was water.  Lots of it.  At this remove I’d struggle to recall whether by mid-2006 racing was already in the habit of providing, as an absolute matter of routine, as much water paddockside as required to slake thirsts or revive the hot and wobbly; but either way, every horse in need of a dousing duly, and conspicuously, got one at Uttoxeter that day.

Ditto at Worcester’s jumps fixture played out in only slightly less strong heat that evening, where the ready supply from the adjacent River Severn gave rise to a bucket of water count to rival a typical episode of Tiswas.  Again, all 64 competitors reportedly came home from the races that evening (albeit with a small number of firm ground-induced lamenesses).  Again, lost causes weren’t pursued foolishly by riders.  Again, around half of those to run were out again before the end of August.

Racing in extreme heat wouldn’t be an ideal, preferred scenario, but if the admittedly limited evidence of this time almost exactly ten years ago is any guide it’s not a uniquely dangerous one if due responsibility is exercised – something all may wish to consider should temperatures hike up yet further at any stage this summer.

And if they do, remind me to go racing at an ATR track, ketchup and bun at the ready.