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Apologies for being slightly off topic (it is certainly more on topic than stuff on other threads) but why can’t we access British Point-to-Point form on the Racing Post site? It seems bonkers that you only get the Irish. Why make the sport less accessible?
Obi, you’ll be too young to remember a TV show called The Big Time, presented by Esther Rantzen. You might not even recall Sheena Easton, the programme’s only real big time success. But coincidentally, 40 years ago this year, a woman – not an athlete of any kind, Olympic or otherwise, but a farmer’s wife and non-rider, was taken by David Nicholson and trained to be a jockey.
There was one bicycle connection: I recall the Duke removing the saddle from Joan’s bike and telling her she must cycle everywhere without it, especially up and down hills.
Here’s the only mention I can find quickly, from the TV critic in The Spectator:
Last week however another farmer’s wife, Joan Barrow, trained as a National Hunt jockey and ended up winning a steeplechase at Ayr by thirty lengths. Although the story was staged, some genuine drama came across thanks to Joan Barrow’s determination and the strong personality of David Nicholson, the Stowon-the-Wold trainer who reluctantly took her on and put her through a remorseless training schedule on the gallops. Nicholson, an iron-willed character known as ‘the Duke,’ was obviously sceptical to begin with—not just about Joan but about all women jockeys. He ended up eating out of her hand and surreptitiously wiping away a tear as she romped home in triumph. It was a real-life National Velvet and the Cotswold scenery, also shot in the summer, looked good even in black and white.
Thats interesting Steeple, I’m a bit younger than Sheena Eastern and now you mention this I do vaguely remember it. I was a bit skeptical about VP at the start, but I am intrigued now, it is certainly very interesting that you can take a complete novice and work with them to this end. I Googled Joan Barrow’s and will download the programme and have a watch.
Thanks for your post. (wouldn’t fancy the seatless bike very much!!)….Sorry, I tend to speed read! Graysonscolumn, do you mind giving your thoughts, as a rider of many years (3 Day Eventing/Dressage) I find it very interesting to think someone can be fast tracked through to that sort of standard. I remember years ago there was a TV programme about ‘fake’ or ‘real’ performances, whereby Tim Stockdale the showjumper taught someone who had never ridden before to showjump against professionals, and then it was analysed by professionals as to who was the fake and who was the pro. They picked the ‘fake’ only due to the fact they were too correct in their approach and had no natural self defence against any untoward movement of the horse. I feel that even if VP starts (and will obviously be well mounted), that the qualifications given to the Foxhunter could not have possibly been done with this sort of use in mind.
Faking it – a great show. A friend of a friend was on it learning to be a rap MC – it was immense..
Andy Stewart said: “The Stewart family are delighted that Victoria will be riding Pacha Du Polder for us in point-to-points, and who knows maybe even at Cheltenham.
“It was thrilling at Aintree as he looked the winner until Nina Carberry joined him at the last and JP’s [McManus] On The Fringe beat us, so this year it might be a women’s race. We’re very excited about the coming months.”
Obi, you’ll be too young to remember a TV show called The Big Time, presented by Esther Rantzen. You might not even recall Sheena Easton, the programme’s only real big time success.
…or the episode in which Fanny Craddock played the poisonous old mare card once too often and killed off her own TV career virtually overnight.
I saw more Sheena Easton in the latter months of 2015 than I think I have since childhood, thanks to BBC4 repeating 1980 editions of Top of the Pops featuring her first three hits. An Easton-free edition from January 22nd 1981 tomorrow evening for them as wants, by the way.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Apologies for being slightly off topic (it is certainly more on topic than stuff on other threads) but why can’t we access British Point-to-Point form on the Racing Post site? It seems bonkers that you only get the Irish. Why make the sport less accessible?
A think this is likeliest tied in with the rights issue which terminated the provision of data for the Racing Post Weekender, and with it that paper’s Between the Flags supplement, at the start of the 2012-13 Pointing season. Whether one party asked to charge more money for the data, or the other less, or both, remains a mystery to me three years on.
Results for British Points and hunter chases from 2005 onwards are retrievable from https://www.pointtopoint.co.uk/results, albeit you’d need to be a subscriber to the PtPRC website to be able to view last weekend’s Pointing results any sooner than later the following week.
The subscription also entitles you to rake through the back form of participants in either sort of race (again since 2005 respectively), either by clicking on any horse/trainer/rider links in a specific result or by using the Register’s search engine: https://www.pointtopoint.co.uk/register.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Hi Jeremy, thoughts on Ms Pendleton’s weekend performances?
Joe (and Obi),
I haven’t seen the playback of either as yet, though Jumping For Fun forumites who were in attendance at Black Forest Lodge opined that she was once more very tidy and got a fair bit out of two essentially ordinary horses, at least one of whom wouldn’t have fancied the going very much.
I don’t think there’s anyone left among those to have seen her still to be convinced of her ability to ride, but I’m sure the majority still question her ability to ride well enough to beat the best of Britain and Ireland’s longer-established amateurs at their own game come Cheltenham in March. More experience, more different race makes and shapes, and a few more ups and downs (she’s yet to fall or unseat) are required to contrive a more rounded learning experience for her.
Moreover, both I and a few of those acquaintances have actually gone cooler about her chances of success since Pacha Du Polder was confirmed as her Foxhunter ride instead of Join Together, the latter’s well-beaten reintroduction last week notwithstanding. An animal well beaten on all three previous visits to HQ, with no winning form over an even halfway undulating course since winning a Warwick novice exactly four years ago, and with stamina beyond 3m arguably still to prove sufficiently, doesn’t necessarily appeal to me as the best possible partner.
Be that all as it may. More immediately, the ranking Ms P has multiple options this weekend. Both According To Sarah and Minella Theatre are entered up in the novice riders’ race and the Ladies Open at Higham, a flat, sharp, fast left-hander in Suffolk that ought to provide unseasonably decent ground and a big field of runners to test an inexperienced rider. The fences were quite variable when I last went there four years ago, too (soft in the home straight, firm in the back), so she might not want to be getting too low at some if that’s still the case.
An alternative engagement is Supreme Danehill in the novice riders’ event at Chipley Park, actually a Devon & Cornwall jurisdiction course despite just about lying inside Somerset. Undulating, right-handed and often quite testing underfoot, this very popular venue is another that ought to attract a big field of runners against her. It’s also a very big wide open space, with nothing either side of most fences to dissuade a tricky horse from running out and going on a several-mile jolly…
It’s either Alnwick or Cocklebarrow instead for me, however, depending on where I’m asked to raceread at, so once more I’ll have to rely on reports back or video footage to comment further.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Many thanks, Jeremy.
I’m reading David Nicholson’s autobiog at the moment, and there’s a section which struck a note here, and perhaps even on the thread for Ms Joannides. Nicholson says that despite him having been riding since he was 3, and his daily sessions from 9 years-old riding work on racehorses, his father warned him that on his first ride (on the flat), when he dismounted afterwards he should grab hold of the stirrup iron in case his legs gave way, which was exactly what happened.
Nicholson said that he warned all the first-time raceriders he encountered, including Princess Anne and several Olympic eventers set to ride in charity races that this would happen to them and to prepare for it, and in every case was proved correct, with one Olympian unable to stay upright and ending up on the ground.
He also said (and this might/might not be pertinent to the young claimer you commented on who had had so few rides), that when involved in his first close finish, he was so exhausted in the final furlong that the only thing that saved him was his father’s advice to sit completely still and not flap around. He did so while his rival was yelling at his horse, the shouts galvanising the Duke’s mount instead to win by a head (Nicholson said, he had no wind left to utter a word, never mind shout). Afterwards, a steward said to Frenchie, “just as well your boy won, or we would have had him in for doing nothing in the finish’
It’s a valuable insight as to how physically and uniquely taxing race-riding is. Doubtless you’ve seen your share of very tired, very floppy riders!
Your quote from David Nicholsons book, steeplechasing, is a fact i many cases. I’ve seen it so often when new riders came back after a race in Denmark, former trackrunners and boxers, they are all surprised.
I was aware of this, so fortunately my legs listedned, when jumping off (a long time ago). I for one wouldn’t have liked a non-horse person to ride against me in any race, after just a short stint at a yard. There are lives involved i raceriding. Human ones.Best Wishes
SilkApologies for being slightly off topic (it is certainly more on topic than stuff on other threads) but why can’t we access British Point-to-Point form on the Racing Post site? It seems bonkers that you only get the Irish. Why make the sport less accessible?
A think this is likeliest tied in with the rights issue which terminated the provision of data for the <em class=”d4pbbc-italic”>Racing Post Weekender, and with it that paper’s <em class=”d4pbbc-italic”>Between the Flags supplement, at the start of the 2012-13 Pointing season. Whether one party asked to charge more money for the data, or the other less, or both, remains a mystery to me three years on.
Results for British Points and hunter chases from 2005 onwards are retrievable from https://www.pointtopoint.co.uk/results, albeit you’d need to be a subscriber to the PtPRC website to be able to view last weekend’s Pointing results any sooner than later the following week.
The subscription also entitles you to rake through the back form of participants in either sort of race (again since 2005 respectively), either by clicking on any horse/trainer/rider links in a specific result or by using the Register’s search engine: https://www.pointtopoint.co.uk/register.
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As if by magic, the following appears on the wire this morning:
British point-to-pointing is getting a new weekly column in the Racing Post, bringing the sport to a daily readership of over 40,000 racing fans.
Starting tomorrow and on every Friday throughout the season, the paper and iPad editions will preview the best of the weekends sport, list the fixtures, and focus on emerging talent and those making the headlines. The paper will also highlight winning British point-to-point graduates under Rules with success boxes in its results section.
Bruce Millington editor at the Racing Post said: “British point-to-pointing is a thriving and important sport and we are pleased to be covering it every Friday.
“As well as giving readers information on the weekend’s fixtures we will be covering the stories of the people and horses that make point-to-pointing such a source of fascination.”
Clare Hazell, Chief Executive of the Point-to-Point Authority, said: We are delighted point-to-pointing returns this week to the Racing Post. It is a great boost for the sport to have a presence once again in Britains daily racing paper. The new column will follow the themes of the season, keep tabs on championship chasers, and give readers information on the weekends fixtures and directions to the courses.
Our new partnership with the Racing Post extends to success boxes that highlight victories in Rules races by British point-to-point graduates in the papers results section. This will offer another indicator of the value British point-to-pointing brings to racing under Rules.
Well this has come right out of the blue, to me at least.
All very pleasing, but I think some expectation management is nevertheless advised. I can’t see from the description that it’s going to be a reboot of the Weekender‘s old Between the Flags supplement, and there’s no mention of the paper carrying British Pointing results hereafter.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Thats interesting Grayson. I buy the RP and it is now ridiculously expensive (£50.00 per month approx) and I believe sells around 12.000 copies per year. I know many people who have cancelled. I would hazzard a guess that RP are looking to sell more papers, could be just me being cynical, but there is always a reason behind the generosity… RP needs a good re-vamp you can get through it in less time than eating a boiled egg.
Two more rides and two more finishes for Victoria Pendleton yesterday, with Minella Theatre (prominent for a long way in a big field until fading to eighth) and According To Sarah (outclassed and always behind, trailing in sixth) completing in the novice riders’ and ladies open events respectively at the aforementioned Higham venue.
Six rides into her Pointing adventure, then, her form figures read: PP4P86.
Just the three fixtures this coming weekend, all on the Sunday, and with two of those in west Wales and the Scottish Borders I’d expect by far the likeliest venue for any further rides will be Milborne St Andrew in Dorset. If she turns out there, she can expect a sharp, undulating, tricky left-hander with properly built, white wooden-framed “mini-Cheltenham” fences and some smallish but usually good/high quality fields.
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
Thanks, Jeremy. Well, she appears to have a strategy built around not falling off. Pull them up if they’re tired, jump as many as you can safely, and don’t worry too much about riding a race for now.
They might well have accepted that completion in March is the target, with anything else a bonus.
Perhaps a couple of point outings on Pacha du Polder will alter their thinking, but given your earlier comments on that one, maybe not!
We’ll find out soon enough, Joe – Pacha Du Polder is duly entered in the Ladies at Milborne St Andrew this Sunday (2.30pm). Deepish race, but Ms P’s mount has over 20lb in hand on Pointerform adjusted ratings. Things just got real…
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Jeremy Grayson. Son of immigrant. Adoptive father of two. Metadata librarian. Freelance point-to-point / horse racing writer, analyst and commentator wonk. Loves music, buses, cats, the BBC Micro, ale. Advocate of CBT, PACE and therapeutic parenting. Aspergers.
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