Latest news from Barbury Races

King plan for Her Indoors comes to fruition

15-04-2021 17:35:52 in General by Russell Smith

Cheltenham's final fixture for professional riders has been dedicated to promoting races for mares for the past 10 years or so, set up at the instigation of BHA to provide a platform for British breeders to showcase their wares. And in truth, it's taken that long for the whole mares programme to win traction successfully. That Honeysuckle won the Champion Hurdle is a fillip for the distaff ...

Lavelle brings silverware home

14-04-2021 19:11:16 in General by Russell Smith

Racing at Cheltenham after the Festival always has a sniff of "after the Lord Mayor's Show" about it, but with just 10 days to go until this season closes, the recurrent themes of the season (excluding the Irish domination) were on show again today. The tussle for the Jockeys' Championship grew one more winner out of Brian Hughes' reach after the winner tally for the day was 2:1 in favour o...

Time to put gender to bed

12-04-2021 18:20:00 in General by Peter McNeile

Those of us following the amateur division of the sport are well used to successful women riders. In a sport where around 50% of the riders are female, it is hardly a surprise to see the spoils of victory shared broadly equally between genders. The likes of Gina Andrews, her sister Bridget before her, Claire Hart and others testify to a structure that offers equal opportunity, whatever your gender...

11-03-2021 19:09:10 in General by Peter McNeile

The Cheltenham Festival is upon us with just a little under a week until the UK’s most exciting Jump racing event begins. Right now, jockeys, horses, and stables are the stuff of tipsters and news reports, awaiting the roar for the opening Supreme Novices Hurdle that will this year have to be restricted to our sofas at home. And right now it is the Tizzard camp that is raising eyebrows after...

04-03-2021 20:33:33 in General by Peter McNeile

It was a day for Kings as both Barbury trainers scored at Ludlow and Taunton today. Neil King and Millie Wonnacott teamed up to give the Burderop trainer his first winner since December, although there's no indication he's been out of form. In the first months of this year, the stable has only had 22 runners, due to ground and weather conditions. And as is so often the case, runners r...

02-03-2021 12:00:00 in General by Peter McNeile

A brief debate last week as to the flexibility of rescheduling the Grand National came to nothing after both the racecourse and BHA opted to retain the status quo. Former managing director of Aintree Racecourse, John Baker, revealed that the date of this year's Grand National might come under scrutiny, if it would help to move in line with the reopening of betting shops in England on April ...

28-02-2021 19:21:34 in General by Peter McNeile

There are trainers you know have a particular penchant for specific courses, and specific races. Just as you could always expect David Nicholson to produce a good novice chaser at Warwick, so you can always expect his former protege, now highly successful top 5 trainer in his own right - Alan King - to target horses at Kempton's Adonis Hurdle en route to a tilt at the Triumph. And so it was...

26-02-2021 19:02:16 in General by Peter McNeile

Alan King warmed up to the sport's most important month with a double at Warwick this afternoon on a day when Spring might finally have sprung. And by his own exacting standards, the master of Barbury has not enjoyed a vintage season just yet, with the winner count down on the norm, even though there have been some memorable highlights. Jay Bee Why, 2/7 favourite in the Novices Hurdle, and ...

Pointing set to resume at end of March

23-02-2021 17:02:16 in General by Peter McNeile

Following the Prime Minister’s Announcement yesterday, the Point-to-Point Authority is planning to restart the sport in week commencing March 29. Peter Wright, CEO, reported, "We are working hard to create a new fixture list which reflects the situation, and hope to have one available by the end of this week – there is no shortage of volunteers. I realise that this will be disa...

22-02-2021 11:08:50 in General by Peter McNeile

Most yards would give their eye teeth for a horse of the calibre and appetite for racing of Sceau Royal. He's a winner of 14 of his 36 races and a fabulous total of £464,610 in winnings, including the most recent at Newbury on Sunday. For a two mile conditions race, the Game Spirit runs the risk of setting up a bloodless victory, which has happened on a regular basis previously. Yet this yea...

18-02-2021 19:17:43 in General by Peter McNeile

Marlborough trainers have been as frustrated as any during this cold then wet spell when Jumps fixtures have been thin on the ground. Today being the first day for over a fortnight to stage more than two Jumps fixtures, no time was wasted by Emma Lavelle in regaining the momentum lost during a desperate February. A double at Sandown in two well-backed 5-2 chances - Red Rookie and Eclair Sur...

Alan King and the elusive Gold Cup

01-02-2021 10:40:13 in General by Peter McNeile

Since 2000, well-known Barbury trainer, Alan King, has worked out of Barbury Castle. Located in Wroughton, the race-winning expert has his own stables, which has thus far trained 1,799 winners. For all of King’s achievements under both codes, he’s best known for his multiple Cheltenham Festival successes. However, despite having 15 Cheltenham winners under his belt, the Gold Cup has so...

Do your homework in the next few weeks

29-01-2021 10:42:22 in General by Peter McNeile

In any normal year, the period from February to the start of the Festival is punctuated by a welter of preview events, each hosted by a panel of experts, comprised of journalists and tipsters, jockeys and trainers. By the time the programme of events concludes with the "official" preview at Cheltenham on the Sunday before the start of the meeting, it's afair reckoning that every one of the 400+ ru...

26-01-2021 15:47:51 in General by Peter McNeile

Sterling efforts have been made to rejig the Point-to-Point fixture list in the wake of the latest lockdown. The Point-to-Point Authority, headed up by the indefatigable Peter Wright, one-time secretary of the Combined Services fixture, has moved Heaven and Earth to create a sustainable fixture list from the end of February - the earliest realistic restart time. To date, of the 170 fixtures...

22-01-2021 16:30:07 in General by Peter McNeile

It would take the most cold-blooded of UK racing fans not to yearn for a little Spring sunshine on their backs in this particularly grim winter. Unable even to enjoy the crisp January air of a Cocklebarrow or an Alnwick fixture, it's all too tempting to think of the big international fixtures that punctuate the Flat calendar. After a series of interruptions and setbacks last year, one...

19-01-2021 13:53:18 in General by Peter McNeile

There are some similarities between the Point-to-Point track at Barbury Racecourse and the home of National Hunt horse racing, Cheltenham. Both venues are left-handed and undulating, thus putting a real emphasis on stamina. In the equine hubs that surround nearby Marlborough and Lambourn, racehorses are trained both for running between the flags and under Rules. The powerful stables of ...

16-01-2021 20:02:26 in General by Peter McNeile

The Barbury Castle winner machine that is Alan King has been enjoying plenty of success in bread and butter races, but to maintain a position at racing's top table, it's the big races that enable you both to catch the eye and rack up some valuable prize money on which your ranking is decided. Such is Alan's reputation that we've grown to expect winners in the big Pattern and handicaps that ...

14-01-2021 18:25:36 in General by Peter McNeile

Britain's latest lockdown has put paid to Point-to-Point fixtures until at least the third week in February, and very likely later, notwithstanding the ability of organising hunts to stage subsequent fixtures. This has put increased importance on the relatively small number of Hunter Chases run under Rules at which horses can qualify for a place at Cheltenham or Aintree.This will now be exacerbate...

09-01-2021 19:01:20 in General by Peter McNeile

If the loss of the only Barbury Point-to-Point fixture remaining this season through the lockdown has got racing fans down, the news has thankfully not spread to Marlborough's racing yards, which continue to flourish in this arduous winter. After a Christmas period where the spotlight largely shone elsewhere, Barbury and Ogbourne Maizey were once again the focus of attention at Kempton and ...

05-01-2021 09:57:47 in General by Peter McNeile

In the light of the Prime Minister’s Announcement last night, the Point-to-Point Authority acted immediately to call a pause to the Point to-Point season from today. Peter Wright, CEO of the governing body, remarked, "Whilst I know that many of you would have liked to press on, and indeed the sport remains inherently safe, we cannot claim that we are acting in a vacuum. The nati...