GINA Andrews rode five winners over three days of Easter point-to-point action but, in the Skinner’s ladies’ open at Kimble on Saturday, she had to settle for second behind Alice Homer who, on her third ride, her first on Agamemmon, held off the reigning and multiple champion on Free Of Charge by half a length.

Homer (20), who rides out for Andrews and her trainer husband Tom Ellis while on a gap year before going to university, is a granddaughter of David Tatlow, owner and trainer of the winning nine-year-old Getaway gelding.

A multiple champion point-to-point rider in the 1960s, Tatlow is better known these days in the show horse world and is a familiar face on the Irish showing and sport horse sales circuit.

In fact Homer was on showing duty herself on Friday when, at a show organised by her mother Loraine at Dallas Burston Polo Grounds, she qualified for the ladies’ side-saddle and lightweight hunter classes at the Royal International Show on the former Jane Bradbury-ridden Bloomfield Eloquence (by Watermill Swatch).

The rider’s previous two mounts in point-to-points had been on the maiden Castlebawn who Tatlow purchased in October from Colin McBratney. Unfortunately, that Watar gelding ‘got a leg’ and so they ended up buying Agamemmon out of Henry Oliver’s yard as a replacement.

The bumper and dual chase winner, who was bred by Seamus Neville out of Oscar Road (by Oscar) was one of five Irish-bred winners on the seven-race card at this Kimblewick hunt fixture. Andrews rode two of these, Al Shahir in the nine-year-old and upwards conditions race and Killinkere in the restricted.

Both were trained by Ellis who recorded a treble when his brother-in-law, Jack Andrews, landed the three-mile maiden on the British-bred Another Mystery, a four-year-old Norse Dancer gelding.

There were few runners on the good to firm ground at Higham on Friday week where Andrews and Ellis won the conditions race with Fox Valley, their only runner of the day. The eight-year-old Wareed mare was one of seven Irish-bred winners on the seven-race card.

On Easter Monday, they travelled to Dingley where they initiated a double in the restricted with the German-bred Indirocco and completed it in the Jockey Club mares and fillies’ maiden on Latenightfumble.

This Malinas six-year-old was bred by Ellis’s mother Pippa and is a half-sister to her dual hunters’ chase winner, Latenightpass (by Passing Glance).

Experiment

The Harley Dunne experiment yielded a win at Dingley on Monday when the newcomer Lyrical Genius landed the three-mile maiden. Ridden by Tiernan Power and trained by Chris Barber, this four-year-old Milan gelding is out of the bumper and hurdle winner Rheinland (by Humbel).

On Saturday, Dunne’s Dash Full Of Cash went down by a length to fellow four-year-old Another Mystery at Kimble but here Power partnered the Barber-trained Envoye Special to victory in the two-and-a-half-mile men’s open.

Also on Saturday, but at Sandon, Co Cork-born Brian Harding saddled his second winner with his second runner between the flags when Jack Martin from Dundalk (a cousin of Brian Hughes) recorded his first success when partnering the newcomer Snowy Clouds to a dead-heat victory in the four, five and six-year-old bumper.

The 2016 Cloudings gelding couldn’t be separated from the Ben Bromley-ridden, Phil Rowley-trained Shirocco five-year-old Another Brown Bear who was having his second start.

At this North Staffordshire meeting three other winners carried an IRE suffix. Harry Crow initiated a riding double in the opening hunt race on the odds-on favourite, Irish Anthem, and brought it up in the maiden on the British-bred Willewonga. Both horses were saddled by Joe O’Shea.

James King recorded a double on Friday on his first visit to Higham where he also trained his first winner, the 11-year-old High Chaparral gelding Thumb Stone Blues who landed the opening veteran horses’ race.

King’s riding double came up in the maiden conditions race on the Jason Warner-trained Ahead Of The Game, a seven-year-old Westerner gelding. On Monday, King was at Dingley where he rode and trained the men’s open winner, Always Lion.

There was an Easter riding double on Saturday for Matt Hampton at Cherrybrook where Will Biddick and Martin McIntyre were among the successful riders. Alan Hill saddled three winners and six placed horses from 14 runners over the weekend.

Seven of the eight races at Sheriff Hutton on Saturday were won by Irish-bred horses. The two divisions of the three-mile maiden were won by the ex-Irish-trained Cotton Rock and the six-year-old Scorpion gelding Cool Desire, while the two-and-a-half-mile maiden went to the seven-year-old Arcadio gelding Rafferty who was making his pointing debut. The 12-year-old Presenting gelding Cup Final won the Grimthorpe Cup over four miles, one furlong.