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Look on the Browsers website to see if they have any. I’ve had a lot of good books from them. You could also ask at a race track bookshop or second hand bookseller. There are a number at local shows and point to points and can also recommend Edward Baines of Rutland Bookshop in Uppingham if you are in that area. Knows the horse book world well and would give you good advice.
I have to disagree with pointing being a good place to start. Having been heavily pushed in that direction with a youngster it had its first start at Larkhill. With around 20 runners it survived 5 fallers at the 3rd only to be one of three fallers at the ninth. With that it continued riderless and disappeared for some length of time with another horse. Thankfully a very kind lady on the loudspeaker let us know it was on the road to Durrington and being followed by the Police. It did pitch up 2 hours later relatively unscathed. Think i’ll give that one a swerve!
You could not have picked a worse track to start a youngster than Larkhill. It is one of the most testing and wide open in the country. If they do get loose then there is the wide open spaces of the Wiltshire Downs for them to play in. Mind you two horses did gallop into the wood at the first Kingston Blount meeting last year. Oh the joys of pointing.
Sorry gents, but I’d have to argue to the contrary on all points above. Larkhill is a perfect venue to blood a youngster, and the propensity for loose ones to run off all over Salisbury Plain isn’t matched by the actuality of it happening, as the outriders around the course are mustard.
A big, wide, galloping expanse, its two long rows of fences afford the inexperienced horse greater opportunity to get into a rhythm jumping than, say, somewhere more on the turn such as North Carlton or Higham.
Indeed, Cottenham rightly garners lots of praise on this thread, but it boasts the fastest 2m4f (and probably 3m, too) in the country and the obstacles don’t half come at the competitors quickly. If I were the owner or trainer of an East Anglia Maiden pointer, I’d sooner take it to Marks Tey or Horseheath for its initial foray any day of the week.
Back to Larkhill, though, presumably at least some of the point of the exercise with your youngster, Obiwankenobi, was to see how good your animal actually was. Pitched in against the firepower from the likes of Richard Barber’s string, you’d have been unlikely to have got a better steer on what you’ve got than in an early-season Wessex Area Maiden.
Such races around Larkhill, Charlton Horethorne, Milborne St Andrew, etc. pre-Cheltenham invariably take a great deal of winning and metaphorically bat a long way down; and it’s probably no coincidence how many winners at the first-named’s Royal Artillery and United Services meetings in particular have gone on to carve out decent Rules careers in recent seasons.
It sounds as if that initial foray into Pointing was unfortunate, but nevertheless I wouldn’t be minded to steer away from repeating the exercise based on just that.
gc
That’s fair enough comment Jeremy, I bow to your superior knowledge. I agree though about Horseheath (never been to Marks Tey) good galloping track with decent bends and the testing uphill finish will find out any stamina or fitness limitations. Good fences and a great view from the middle of the path in the middle of the track which is where all the facilities are.
Lovely chap, once took time for a chat with me at a Nottingham jumping fixture. Hope his retirement is long and happy after what was a long and distinguished career.
CR, don’t forget that the promising Cappa Bleu was plying his trade around the East Anglian point to points before winning the Cheltenham Foxhunters in March and going under rules.
Pointing is a good place for the youngsters to start and the veterans to finish.
GC – suprised that Lee Gap Fair didn’t make your list
I have to disagree with pointing being a good place to start. Having been heavily pushed in that direction with a youngster it had its first start at Larkhill. With around 20 runners it survived 5 fallers at the 3rd only to be one of three fallers at the ninth. With that it continued riderless and disappeared for some length of time with another horse. Thankfully a very kind lady on the loudspeaker let us know it was on the road to Durrington and being followed by the Police. It did pitch up 2 hours later relatively unscathed. Think i’ll give that one a swerve!
You could not have picked a worse track to start a youngster than Larkhill. It is one of the most testing and wide open in the country. If they do get loose then there is the wide open spaces of the Wiltshire Downs for them to play in. Mind you two horses did gallop into the wood at the first Kingston Blount meeting last year. Oh the joys of pointing.
The northern tracks are taking longer to thaw because the frost is much further into the ground. I don’t know where you live but it has not been above freezing since Sunday where I live, just inside the M25 in Enfield. We would not have raced on turf on the nearby recreation ground on Monday as there was still frost in the ground and a bit of snow. It has cleared now, but I doubt that Haydock have had the same thaw that the south has had.
Look at Musselburgh, right by the sea, but put their cancelled inspection back on as the temperature has not risen enough to get the frost out quickly enough. If Haydock did not have frost covers then it had no chance at all, if it did then it was dependent on the snow clearing.
Not a big fan of Haydock, but this time I think we have to look at the location of the track and its ability to clear frost and snow. For once I sympathise with them
The BHA really do need to get their act together on this one, for goodness sake. It clashes directly with the opening day of the point to point season in the South East.
You are welcome to Kempton, I am going to Bimbury Meadows near Detling. It will be cheaper, less crowded and more fun, though the downside is that Detling is a cold place at the best of times, but in mid-January!!!! A case of Micheline Man goes point to pointing.
Anyone else coming with me. There is a bus to the track from Maidstone. I’ll let you know the best times when I know the first race time.
They couldn’t be persuaded to bring Chesnut Annie to Kingston Blount or Charing sometime could they Jeremy. The rider is well worth following as she gives everything a really good ride. Vastly underrated by those who don’t follow pointing closely, but highly rated by those that do.
The famous dead heat between Monksfield and Night Nurse at Aintree in 1977. A battle royal between two of the all time greats. Follow that if you can we all thought that sunny afternoon. The sport did just that. The very next race was the Grand National and Red Rum wrote his place among the immortals winning it for the third time in one of the most emotional finishes to a race ever seen. What a an hour of racing and two races that will live long in the memory.
The jumpers are all from my boyhood but are the favourits because the fanned the flames of my of my love of the winter game.
Arkle – need I say more, the one, the only, the best
Freddie, second in two grand Nationals and the 65 Hennessey to the great one above. Scotlands best ever chaser trained on a farm near Kelso in the best traditions of the game.
Persian War – often forgotten when hurdlers are discussed but in my view rates as the best. Hard as nails battler who did not have the easiest of owners and also overcame illness.
Flat
Mill Reef. The first horse to win the Derby, Eclipse, King George and the Arc in the same season, won the Coronation Cup the following year before injury ended his career. His defeat in the 71 Guineas was considered a shock at the time until we realised what a great horse Brigadier Gerard was.
Double Trigger – hard nosed stayer the kind of battler I like.
Rose of Tobrouk – who you might ask? "Rosie" won a race at the Castleholm Langholm in the 70s on the Common Riding Day and I led her up. My only claim to racing fame and thus this humble flapper, whose son Heroic Way, won the John Peel Open at Dalston point to point, gets a mention on this esteemed forum
So that being the case you chaps who never touch low grade racing won’t be joining me down the high ways and byways of point to pointing any time soon. Your loss lads damn good day out and fine sport.
I love Cottenham – not sure why but it has a nice grandstand, is a flat enough track and I seem to see plenty of people I know which always helps
Suffers a touch of the "Cheltenham’s" though according to the annual there seemed to have been plenty of races with dolled off fences due to low sun in recent years.
My only visit last season was that fun day in February when the fog came down before the first and we had James Crisp on the walkie talkie relaying the back straight to Steve payne in the Grandstand to give us a commentary. Great fun and well done for the effort,
Bob’s planned first outing is at Detling in January, one of the nicest but coldest race tracks in the country and then on to Horseheath and then Charing, all three tracks I missed due to bad weather last year and man flu at easter.
Aldington on Easter Monday is a really good day out. The setting is really picturesque and if the ground is decent, then the sport is good. A very good hound parade and excellent grub. It comes with my recommendation as does Kingston Blount, Kimble, Dalston, Dingley and my local track the extremely dotty day out that is the lovely Northaw between Potters Bar and Waltham Cross. You would not believe that the M25 was just over the next hill or that the built up area of Greater London was only 5 miles away. First May bank holiday monday is its date. See you all there.
Hey how about a Northaw TRF meet up or any other point in the South East that i can get to, Charing Sunday fixture for instance?
It’s hard to watch Golden Cygnets fall; a novice, he was about to thrash the select of the Golden Age of hurdlers; Monksfield was the only absentee. And, I think, he was giving all except Sea Pigeion 5lbs.
Golden Cygnet, Dawn Run, Killiney, why is it always the best ones?I was there that day and he was giving them all the mother and father of a beating when he went. Funny thing is that he got up and walked back but died a few days later in the veterinary hospital, the famous Roya Dick.
Chesnuts are part of a horse’s anatomy too aren’t they?
Could someone remind me what and where they are?
Also do horses actually eat conkers or is Horse Chestnut simply a pejorative term to signify they’re ‘bad’ in comparison with Sweet Chestnuts
Some may recall a horse called Concer Un which I believe is Welsh for ‘brown one’
A horse’s chesnut is the horny bit on the inside of both front legs. Have never got close enough to look at the back but I don’t think they are there. I have never heard of them eating conkers, but the name might derive from the horseshoe shaped indentation to a branch when a leaf drops off.
especially for Himself….most of us think of Arkle as the greatest staying chaser of all time but in any other era Mill House was a truly great horse too.I remember him winning at Newbury in the Hennessy I think when Arkle made a bad mistake a couple of fences out (possibly unsighted) and Mill House went on to winwith Arkle only 4th,I believe second and third were Happy Spring and Vibert. You had to see Arkle to believe him and he forced the Handicapper into reframing the weight range putting Himself on 13stone, with the rest on between 9st 7lbs and 10 st 7lbs. We shall never again see his like….for those who are much younger please do borrow,beg or steal a DVD of his career….you will not regret it,and I never ever had a penny on him….always odds on !
You will find several of Arkle’s races now on Youtube including the famous 64 Gold Cup. There is a very good DVD called "Arkle" around, you might find on Equestrian Vision’s site. By the way he was third, not fourth in Mill House’s Hennessey.
By the way how about this lot to conjour with, Border hunter of note Freddie, Flying Ace and The Callant, also Wyndburgh one of the National’s unlukiest losers and a front runner from Ken Oliver’s famous Hawick yard of old, Even Keel.
Defintiely a Liver Chestnut
In horses, "liver chestnut" is a term used to describe a chocolate-colored chestnut horse. A liver chestnut is the same genetically as a regular chestnut, but the shade is a dark brown rather than the reddish or rust color more typical of chestnut
Useless information time from Bob: All Suffolk Punch horses are chesnut in colour (it is spelt without the first "t") of which there are 7 shades one of which is Liver.
There was a really good article in last week’s Horse and Hound about the Tizzards, their training and farming operation and Cue Card. Proper jumping folk who have got a really good horse to go to work on.
Looks the part to me and would think he would make a really nice chaser in the long term.
