AFTER weeks of weather-affected sport, the 2019/2020 season in Britain was brought to a halt when the point-to-point authority issued this release on Tuesday.

“This is a formal announcement to confirm that the British point-to-point season is closed for this season.

“This was a very difficult decision to make recognising that many people’s livelihoods are involved. However, the Prime Minister’s words last night made clear that everyone should minimise social contact and non-essential travel. Furthermore, our sport creates some medical burden, both on the course and potentially at the hospitals, where it would be unwelcome under the current circumstances.

“The PPA would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has worked so hard to keep this season going so successfully until now, often under very trying circumstances. We will now be working on preparations to ensure that we start next autumn in the same successful manner as last, and will soon be in touch with many of you for your thoughts and ideas.”

THE highlight of the hunt racing programme in Britain, the St James’s Place Foxhunters’ Chase at Cheltenham, was won in brilliant fashion last Friday week by the Maxine O’Sullivan-ridden It Came To Pass whose story is covered on pages 14 and 15.

On the same afternoon, Jack Andrews won the hunters’ chase at Fakenham on the Flemensfirth gelding Full Irish who is trained by Co Cork-born David Phelan.

The nine-year-old was bred in Co Meath by Gordon Foster out of the unraced Saddlers’ Hall mare Miss Kettlewell.

Seven days earlier, the nine-year-old Westerner gelding Clondaw Westie recorded his sixth track success when winning the hunters’ chase at Ffos Las for the Lawney Hill yard, the French-bred Risk And Roll, a six-year-old by No Risk At All, won the hunters’ chase at Stratford on Monday, March 9th, and the Island House gelding Just A Par obliged for connections at Carlisle last Sunday.

WHEN the curtain came down on the British season on Tuesday, the Andrews siblings, Gina and Jack, topped the ladies’ and gentlemen’s championship tables on 22 and 20 wins respectively.

Last Sunday, the pair both rode at High Easter where Gina recorded a double while Jack’s sole victory in the mixed open, on the Stuart Morris-trained Volnay de Thaix, came at the expense of Gina on Early Retirement. In the three-mile, six-furlong Countryside Alliance club members’ conditions race, the positions were reversed with Gina partnering the Nicholas Wright-owned and trained Sugar Baron, a 10-year-old Presenting gelding, to victory over Jack on King Of The Clothe.

The latter horse, the only beaten favourite on the six-race card, is trained by Gina’s husband, Tom Ellis, who provided his wife with the first of her day’s winners, Tiger’s Song, in the two-and-a-half-mile restricted. Tom also retained his leading trainer title with 27 winners.

Riding Howitsdone, Jack finished in front of his sister on Berties Escape in the concluding maiden but the pair had to settle for second and third behind Richard Collinson on the Andrew Pennock-trained Luscious Lilly who was having her third start in Britain.

The 2013 Asian Heights mare ran six times when trained here by Michael Winters, finishing second on her last two starts under Maxine O’Sullivan. She is the fourth of six foals, and the only filly, out of the dual Grade 3-placed three-time winning hurdler No Small Plans (by Teamster) who comes from the family of Earthmover.

While multiple champion Gina has dominated the Skinner’s ladies’ title race from the start of the season, 21-year-old Jack put himself in contention for a first success in the national men’s division over the weekend of March 7th and 8th when he partnered five winners.

On an eight-race card at Ampton on the Saturday, Andrews recorded a four-timer for four different trainers on four of the six successful Irish-bred horses. Included in this quartet were both winners of the divided maiden, the Ellis-trained Man Of Means (2015 gelding by Mahler ex Santavino, by Be My Native), who had run once in Ireland, and the Nigel Padfield-owned and trained newcomer, Direct Flight (2014 gelding by Dubai Destination ex Rosmerta, by Oscar).

Treble

The following afternoon, Jack travelled up to Alnwick in Northumberland where he landed the bumper on the French-bred Indigo Breeze, a 2016 Martaline gelding who was making his debut for the Gearoid Costelloe yard.

Gina also went north, but only as far as Dalton Park in Yorkshire where Ellis supplied her with three winners on a poorly-supported seven-race card.

Here, Jack Teal also landed a treble, training two of the winners himself, while the concluding three-runner maiden was won by the Will Easterby-trained and ridden Ask The Question, one of six Irish-bred winners. The five-year-old Ask gelding is the first of four recorded foals out of the Flemensfirth mare Katie Cranny.

THE number of winners partnered by Irish-born riders dropped considerably this season from last, the loss of Bryan Carver to the professional ranks being followed by Martin McIntyre suffering a serious injury in a fall at Badbury Rings on Sunday, February 23rd.

The Co Meath amateur had ridden just two winners for the campaign before travelling to that Countryside Alliance Club meeting where he had five rides. He pulled up three of his mounts and finished second prior to falling with Smartmandarcy who he had partnered when the bay gelding finished sixth in a Newton Abbot bumper last July on his only previous start.

Having initially been diagnosed with just bruising at the local hospital, McIntyre, who works at Harry Fry’s yard in Dorset, sought a second opinion and, thanks to Dr Jerry Hill (the British Horseracing Authority’s chief medical adviser) and the Injured Jockeys Fund team, he saw a specialist in London the following Wednesday.

“I then discovered that I had broken my T2 and had ligament damage to C5, C6 and C7,” revealed McIntyre who, on Wednesday just past, was heading out for another scan and x-ray to make sure his injuries were healing properly. “They reckon I’ll be eight weeks altogether in a brace but, once that is off, I’ll to to Oaksey House to get back on the road.”

Galway-born Tommie O’Brien, who works for the powerful Lacey yard, had better luck and closed out the campaign when notching up wins number 10 and 11 on two four-year-old French-bred geldings who were making their debuts at Larkhill last Sunday.

Worryingly for Irish breeders, six of the seven winners at that New Forest Hounds’ fixture were foaled in France. The sole successful horse who carried an IRE suffix was the Stuart Penny-trained O’Faolains Lad, winner of division two of the three-mile maiden under Thomas Doggrell. The six-year-old Oscar gelding, who was scoring on his third start in Britain, pulled up on four of his five starts in this country when trained by Trevor Horgan for Pius Phelan. The latter bred the bay out of the Overbury mare, O’Faolains Fancy.

Irish-born trainers who sent out winners over the final two weekends of the season included bloodstock agent Tom Malone who saddled his own Milanford to strike on his British debut at Didmarton on Saturday, March 7th. Previously in the care of Liam Kenny, the six-year-old Milan gelding was bred by Brian Moran out of the Art Francais mare Tabachines, dam of, among others, two French-bred blacktype performers in Toubab (by Martaline) and Narock (by Great Palm).

At Alnwick, Co Westmeath-born Anthony Ross sent out the Jeremy mare Onestepatatime to win under Lyall Hodgins in the three-mile maiden. The five-year-old is out of the unraced Quws mare Good Thyne Lucy, a half-sister to the Grade 2 hurdle winner Beer Goggles (by Oscar) and the Irish Grand National third Home Farm (by Presenting).

Kerry native Gerry Supple provided young rider Fergus Gillard with the second leg of a double at Buckfastleigh last Sunday when the British-bred Sandaroc, a 2016 filly by Shirocco, won division two of the four and five-year-old bumper. Also owner of the bay, Supple was saddling just his second runner of the season.