Hang In There enhances reputation at Market Rasen

18-July-2022

18-July-2022 9:54

in General

by Russell Smith

Hang In There continued to enhance his reputation as a novice to follow at Market Rasen on Saturday, when winning a 3 runner novice chase by a 27l margin. In truth, there was only ever one horse in it, but the style in which Emma Lavelle's prospective star made the race his own has spectators talking of major honours even at this early stage of a summer.

Hang In There is just another of the successful horses owned by Tim Syder, who has teamed up with co-owner at Lavelle's Andrew Gemmell. They have plenty to look forward to with this 8 year old son of Yeats, now a winner of 7 races.

Meanwhile, Charlotte Fuller enjoyed a second winner since taking out a licence when Our Three Sons held on by a nose to hold off Defi d'Oudairies in a handicap hurdle at Newton Abbot yesterday. This was another family affair, the horse being owned by Charlotte and husband Richard, both huge followers of the game, and ridden by daughter Page, who works for Jamie Snowden.

Meantime, a provisional fixture list for next season's Point-to-Point calendar has been issued, with a total of 145 fixtures over 31 weeks, starting in early November and concluding at the beginning of June. The trend begun several years ago toward pre-Christmas and midwinter fixtures has continued to match a horse population that peaks in February.

No day will stage more than 5 fixtures, excepting Easter Monday and the classic races remain unchanged in their venues. Barbury will not be among the venues staging racing this winter, after cost constraints and the inability of the three fixtures staging events at Barbury being able to promise more than one year at a time, made the viability of the course impractical. It's a sad loss to the sport after nearly 30 years as a popular mid-winter venue.

One notable change is that the championships - owner, trainer & rider - will conclude at Stratford's Hunters' evening on Friday May 26th next year, allowing a more public presentation of the awards that accompany them. Stratford's Pertemps Network Stratford Foxhunter Chase is the final of the three major Foxhunter chases that punctuate the season, the others of course, being the Cheltenham Foxhunters on Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup day, and the Randox Foxhunter at the Aintree Grand National the following month.