"Quality will out" is a watchword for racing at Aintree nowadays, where the era of long-priced unfancied horses has largely been put to bed by changes to race conditions and the shape of the fences. And perhaps the racing over the National fences is better for that.  That quality was proven yesterday when 3/1 favourite It's On The Line, trained by Emmet Mullins, and ridden by Derek O'Connor,...

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Time Leader and Spyglass offer the best chance of continued home-grown success on the Randox Foxhunter Chase, the second of the three "classics" of the amateur season tomorrow at Aintree.  Twenty-two runners line up for the thrill of a lifetime - a circuit of Aintree's Grand National fences, but rarely nowadays, the ground will be soft or heavy, which always throws up some imponderables. Ti...

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Can you name me a trainer who has improved his strike rate nearly threefold this season? I thought not.  Robbie Llewellyn is proving that the small man can make training work, notching his 22nd winner of the season this afternoon at Hereford with Ask Me Another in the National Hunt Novices Hurdle. Llewellyn is a product of the South Wales School of Training Excellence, but has now set up sho...

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The misery continues for fixture secretaries in the Three Counties, following the opening of the heavens again. Fixtures at Maisemore on April 13 - already rescheduled from te end of March - and Woodford for the Berkeley Races, have been cancelled and will not be rescheduled.  A season to forget between the flags. Perhaps Latenightpass and Sine Nomine can shed some sunlight on the Point-to-P...

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GINA Andrews enjoyed the perfect tonic ahead of her Randox Grand National bid with a dominant triumph aboard Loughan at the Vine & Craven Hunt meeting at Kingston Blount, near Chinnor, on Sunday. The 10-time ladies' champion rider, who will partner Latenightpass for her trainer-husband, Tom Ellis, in the Aintree spectacular on Saturday, made virtually all the running on the nine-year-old in t...

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Paul Miller will replace Peter Wright as CEO of the Point-to-Point Authority on 3 June. However, he will be at point to points most weekends for the rest of the season and looks forward to meeting you all. Born and bred in Scotland, Paul spent almost 20 years in London before moving to the countryside in 2012. For the last 25 years he has been involved in recruitment solutions and resource manage...

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THE Vine & Craven Hunt point-to-point is back after a five-year hiatus with a new home at Kingston Blount, near Chinnor, Oxfordshire, on Sunday (1pm). Previously staged at Barbury, which has now closed, the Sandhurst Area fixture hasn't taken place since 2019 due to a combination of reasons including Storm Ciara and the pandemic. However, the organisers are delighted to see the meeting return...

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AMATEUR jockey Martin McIntyre celebrated a century of point-to-point winners with victory on Rocky Creed in front of a big crowd at the Old Berkshire Hunt meeting at Lockinge, near Wantage, on Easter Monday. The 33-year-old rider reached the milestone after completing a double on the day following an earlier success on Douglas Longbottom, with the pair giving trainer Bea Coward her first double....

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Due to an unprecedented amount of rain in the last 24hrs, Gloucester Races has been called off this Sunday 31st March due to severe waterlogging.   An announcement will be made shortly regarding a new date.   Tickets and entries will be rolled forward should an alternative date be feasible. If no alternative date is arranged all tickets and entries will be refunded.

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Robbie Llewellyn continues to make his mark as a second season trainer, notching up his 22nd winner of the term at Taunton yesterday, when 8/11 favourite Loup de Maulde just fended off King Turgeon from David Pipe's to win a handicap chase by a neck. The yard at Wroughton is boasting an impressive 22% strike rate from 94 runners to date this term, and whilst they're not yet of a high quality, the...

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WITH its reputation for fast-draining ground coming on the back of an exceptionally wet winter, the Old Berkshire Hunt point-to-point has been rewarded with the biggest entry of the Easter Bank Holiday weekend for its meeting at Lockinge, near Wantage, on Monday (2pm). Trainers eager to run their horses on a sounder surface have been attracted to the course's chalk-based old downland turf with the...

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Picturesque Maisemore Park provides a bucolic backdrop for the annual Gloucester Races and Country Fair on Easter Sunday (March 31) where a seven-race card has attracted an entry of 106.   The main action is scheduled to get underway at 1pm and racegoers are in for a treat with some established equine names battling for top billing alongside an array of younger horses of untapped potential ...

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The curtain fell on the current season at Larkhill as the Tedworth returned to the course that they last raced at in 1991. The weather played its part in the day giving two unpleasant hailstorms which sent racegoers scurrying for cover but otherwise it remained dry throughout the afternoon. There were a number of impressive performances during the meeting including a training double for Nicky Shep...

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The Wessex Area welcomes back the Tedworth into the area after the demise of Barbury. Their Point to Point is to be held at Larkhill on Saturday, March 23rd and it promises to be an action-packed day filled with exciting Point to Point racing, pony racing, the charity Tedworth Derby, a hound parade, trade stands, a fun dog show, kids entertainment, a beer tent and live music after the races. All ...

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The St James's Place Foxhunter turned in a feel-good story to close out Gold Cup day at Cheltenham with the victory of Sine Nomine, 22 years on from owning a previous winner of the race for Robin Tate. Trained by daughter and Catterick Clerk of Course, Fiona Needham and ridden by John Dawson, the game grey mare showed a good turn of foot after the last to make up around 3l and outpoint 11/8 favou...

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A fascinating renewal of the St James's Place Foxhunter Chase at the Festival contains added interest for Yorkshire spectators, when Fiona Needham saddles Sine Nomine to run in the race for the first time. 12 have been declared for the biggest trophy of the week, and the chance to take home the winner's prize of £24,445, something rather more than the £400 available for weekend Point-...

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What a difference seven days can make! Just  over a week ago Didmarton was abandoned with the course cloaked in snow but on Saturday there were no similar problems and the rescheduled Duke Of Beaufort's meeting went ahead without a hitch, writes Andrew King.   And the Bradley Gibbs team limbered up for a big week at Cheltenham with his stable star Premier Magic attempting a repeat...

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Racing is a small parish. In the world of horsecare, with less than 20,000 horses in training across the entire UK, it's not quite a trusim to say that everyone knows everyone, but it's not far off the truth.  Even in the pyramid of excellence, there'll be connections between liverymen and breaking yards and licensed yeards, where the public profile is that much higher. And whilst much of th...

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All roads lead to Didmarton on Saturday March 2nd for the annual running of the Duke Of Beaufort's Point-to-Point and the meeting has accrued a very healthy entry of 114 for the six-race card with an official start time of 1pm.   Ahead of the meeting, officials at the course are more than happy with conditions out on the track and have posted the ground as "good to soft and soft in places "...

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The recent withdrawal of Milton Harris' training licence has blown a hole in one of Wiltshire's most successful yards, but it says more about changing employment practices than about Harris' ability to train horses. One might say that's the easy part.  Harris has been stood down on the basis of not being "a fit and proper person" after breaching licence conditions on being a company dir...

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