THE pandemic-affected British point-to-point season concluded last Sunday at Kingston Blount where all four national champion riders were in action, as was the champion horse.

Claiming the Tattersalls men’s title for the first time, James King rounded off his excellent campaign with a 33rd victory of the term in the 13-runner restricted on the British-bred Kaproyale.

The 25-year-old only got off the mark for the season on April 2nd at Higham where he landed the veteran horses’ race on the 11-year-old High Chaparral gelding Thumb Stone Blues who he also trains for his uncle, the season’s leading owner Jason Warner.

Six days later, King won the Rose Paterson Randox hunters’ chase at Aintree on the Joe O’Shea-trained Cousin Pascal after which his point-to-point campaign really kicked into gear.

The vast majority of his winners were trained by Francesca Nimmo including Kaproyale who won a Garthorpe maiden on his debut between the flags last month.

Up until early April, the six-year-old Kapgarde gelding had been trained by Olly Murphy for whom he twice finished third in eight starts over hurdles. King rides out regularly for both Murphy and Nimmo and will have a busy summer helping Nimmo and her husband Charlie Poste break-in horses for next season.

Nimmo saddled 21 winners during the 2020/2021 campaign which left her third on the Foran Equine leading trainers’ table (for those with eight or more horses) behind Tom Ellis (30) and Alan Hill (26), both of whom also sent out winners on Sunday.

Sutton success

Locally based Hill, one of the driving forces behind Sunday’s fixture, recorded a treble, saddling two of the three winners which saw Ben Sutton leapfrog Co Waterford’s Conor Houlihan to claim the Highflyer Bloodstock novice men’s championship.

Houlihan, who ended the national campaign with nine wins to his credit compared to Sutton’s 11, won the novice men’s title in the Devon and Cornwall Area.

The Hill/Sutton double on Sunday was initiated by Sir Mangan in the men’s open and completed in the maiden by Festival Dawn who, like Sir Mangan, ran in the colours of the rider’s father Nick who also bred the nine-year-old Kayf Tara mare.

In beating the Tommie O’Brien-partnered The Brassmoulder by four and a half lengths, Sir Mangan was winning for the fifth time this season which saw him crowned Connolly’s Red Mills champion horse ahead of the aforementioned Thumb Stone Blues (four).

A 13-year-old gelding by Darsi, Sir Mangan was bred in Co Wexford by Patrick Doyle out of the Cajetano mare Lady Pep who bred three other thoroughbred foals, all colts, and one traditionally bred Irish Sport Horse filly, Mangan Dancer, who is by the Irish Draught stallion Bannvalley Silver Dancer.

Like his two older half-brothers, Clonevin Boy (by Turtle Island) and Joe’s Delight (by Zagreb), Sir Mangan first ran in point-to-points for Doyle.

Lingstown win

However, while they never managed to win, Sir Mangan landed a five-year-old geldings’ maiden at Lingstown (by a distance under Jimmy O’Rourke) on his fourth and final start for his breeder in March 2013.

Sold to England, Sir Mangan was first trained by Donald McCain (for whom he won once over hurdles and once over fences, being placed on numerous occasions) and then by Dan Skelton (for whom he won two more hurdle races and a chase and was again regularly placed).

He was purchased by Sutton senior for £8,500 at Ascot in March 2019. Since then Sir Mangan has run seven times for his new connections, finishing second first time out in a hunters’ chase at Ffos Las and also finishing second on the only other time he didn’t win between the flags in six starts.

Ben Sutton’s third success on Sunday came in the novice riders’ race on the 10-year-old Indian River gelding Rolling Dylan, who is trained by Laura Parker for Philip Hobbs, while Alan Hill saddled the final winner of the 2020/2021 season when Izzie Marshall partnered Normofthenorth to justify odds-on favouritism in the conditions level 2 race.

That seven-year-old Gold Well gelding, one of four Irish-bred winners on the seven-race card, provided his rider with her ninth win of the campaign.

Andrews champion again

This left Marshall second on the Skinner’s ladies’ championship table but some way off Gina Andrews who, although out of luck on Sunday with just placings from three rides, claimed the title for the eighth time with 20 wins to her credit, despite a season interrupted by injury as well as the pandemic.

The majority of Andrews’s wins came on horses trained by her husband Tom Ellis who saddled Blazing Tom to win the ladies’ open at Kingston Blount under Natalya Irvine who thus claimed the Highflyer Bloodstock novice ladies’ championship with four wins. All have been on the 10-year-old Dr Massini gelding who had just the four starts this term.

Ben Bromley won Sunday’s opener, the owner/trainer conditions race, on the 10-year-old Definite Article gelding Drumlynn who carried the colours of ITV Racing and Attheraces presenter, Luke Harvey, to a five-length success.

Two meetings were staged over the penultimate weekend.

On the Saturday at Garthorpe, where there were four Irish-bred winners on the seven-race card, David Kemp saddled three winners, two of whom were ridden by Dale Peters.

The maiden was won on his third start by the Zac Baker-ridden, Denis Quinn-owned and trained Dan’s Cross, a five-year-old Dansant gelding out of Capparoe Cross (by Saddlers’ Hall).

Five of the six winners at Bratton Down on the Sunday were bred in this country including the men’s open winner, Jason Warner’s Los Alamos, an eight-year-old Galileo gelding ridden by James King for Luke Price.

This was an eighth success of the campaign for Price, the Foran Equine leading trainer with seven or less horses.

Co Meath-born Martin McIntyre recorded his fourth win of the season in the hunt members’ race on the Keith Cumings-trained Dr Rhythm, an eight-year-old Kalanisi gelding, while Robert Hawker landed the maiden on the Teresa Clark-trained Bennys Miracle.

Having just her third start, this seven-year-old Primary mare is out of Clomore (by Pierre).