Ellis all out to retain title

TOM Ellis further strengthened his bid to retain the Foran Equine trainers’ title when saddling three winners last Saturday at Horseheath where his wife, Gina Andrews, claimed the younger horses’ maiden on Bawnmore (FR) and the ladies’ open on Latenightpass (GB).

Andrews’s brother Jack initiated the treble for the Ellis yard at this Thurlow Hunt fixture when landing the opening 13-runner conditions race on Fumet D’Oudairies.

This French-bred five-year-old has won all three of his starts in Britain in the colours of The Ice and a Slice Racing Club.

The other two meetings last weekend were staged on Sunday when Ellis and Andrews were again on the road, this time combining for a double at Alnwick where half of the six winners were Irish-bred.

The couple’s double was initiated in the four-runner Skinner’s ladies open by the eight-year-old Kalanisi mare Kalabaloo who will next line-up in the Foxhunter at Cheltenham.

Newcomer

A third of the nine winners at Milborne St Andrew were bred in this country including newcomer Velasco who provided trainer Sophie Lacey and rider Tommie O’Brien with the first leg of a double in the second division of the younger horses’ maiden over two and a half miles.

The only four-year-old in the 10-runner field, Valasco is by Sholokhov and was bred by Kenilworth House Stud out of the Phantom Breeze mare Bilboa who is the dam of five track winners including The West’s Awake (by Yeats).

This was a 100th career success, between point-to-point and track wins in Britain and Ireland, for Galway native O’Brien.

Will Biddick also recorded a double which he brought up in the eight-runner hunt members’ race on the Mary Tory-trained odds-on favourite Imogens Thunder, a nine-year-old Stowaway gelding.

Passing of Robert Alner

THE hunt racing community was deeply saddened by the news on Tuesday of the death of former British champion point-to-point rider and Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning trainer, Robert Alner. For further details please see page 6.