ALTHOUGH I am not a great aficionado of flat racing, I did have time on my hands to watch the so-called Future Champions Day at Newmarket recently. During the television presentation much publicity was given for that day’s later (un-televised of course) Oxford versus Cambridge race at the course.

Much was being made of this being the first such intervarsity event but, of course, these pundits and P.R. people have very short memories or even complete lack of knowledge

Horse racing has a long tradition at both universities although I have to admit that the jumping code has been pre-eminent. Both have had their own point-to-points for probably more than a century. In 1922, a rich young American Stephen Sanford bought a horse to ride himself in that year’s Cambridge University meeting. The horse called Sergeant Murphy proved too strong for the young undergraduate who instead put him into training. The result – he won the following year’s Grand National.

With such enthusiasm around it was not surprising that after World War II an intervarsity point-to-point race was established and run on an annual basis at the Oakley hunt’s meeting.

Many well-known names competed in these events, especially of Irish interest being Hon Mark Hely-Hutchinson (Oxford) and the recently lamented Alan Lillingston (Cambridge). Though Oxford produced more well-known names such as Gay Kindersley, Peter and Edward Cazalet, John Lawrence and Brough Scott, by my records Cambridge seemed to come out on top most often.