HALF of the four meetings due to take place in Britain last weekend were cancelled because of Storm Eunice and have since been abandoned.

Of the remaining two fixtures, Irish-breds fared the better in testing conditions at Horseheath on Saturday when they won five of the six races.

These included the eight-year-old Getaway geldings How To Get Away (Level 2 conditions race) and Rebel Dawn Rising (intermediate) who provided a double for rider Dale Peters and trainer David Kemp.

Will Biddick recorded his 18th win of the season when landing the maiden on the Chris Barber-trained newcomer, Mr Vango. A six-year-old gelding by Ocovango out of the unraced Beneficial mare African Miss, the bay was due to come under the hammer at Tattersalls Cheltenham on Thursday as Lot 19.

Izzie Marshall partnered the 12-year-old Flemensfirth gelding Hawkhurst to his 17th point-to-point victory in the ladies’ open in the colours of trainer Alan Hill while the Nick Pearce-trained 10-year-old Winged Love gelding Mr Love made it two for two for the season when winning the Level 2 conditions race for novice riders under Murray Dodd.

Badbury Rings

Half of the eight winners at Badbury Rings on Sunday were bred in this country including Rose Of Arcadia who recorded an impressive victory in the men’s open under 16-year-old Freddie Gingell. The seven-year-old daughter of Arcadio, who is now owned by the rider’s grandfather, Colin Tizzard, was making her British pointing debut following wins in a bumper and a mares’ novices’ hurdle when trained by Tizzard for Cheveley Park Stud.

The bay won a four-year-old mares’ maiden at Tattersalls on her only start in this country in early December 2019 before, days later, changing hands for £170,000 at Tattersalls Cheltenham.

The Keith Cumings-trained nine-year-old Kalanisi gelding Dr Rhythm won the opening race on the card, division one of the Level 3 conditions race, in the hands of Josh Newman while both divisions of the concluding maiden went to horses carrying an IRE suffix.

Another Arcadio seven-year-old, Cuzzicombe, a gelding out of the Bigstone mare Cebola who was previously trained by Cumings, came good on his fifth start, his second for Ed Walker, when landing division one under Chloe Emsley.

Alex Chadwick claimed the second division on Victory Club, a once previously-raced Soldier Of Fortune gelding trained by Harriet Dickin.

The five-year-old, who was entered in Thursday’s Tattersalls Cheltenham sale as Lot 5, is out of the Shalford mare La Shalak a five time winner on the flat and once over hurdles. One of three French-bred winners at this Countryside Alliance Club fixture was the Sam Loxton-trained Caid Du Berlais who was ridden for the first time in public by Natalie Parker in the ladies’ open. The 13-year-old Westerner gelding twice won the champion hunters’ chase at Punchestown under Will Biddick.

Hunter chases

On the hunters’ chase scene, the reigning men’s point-to-point champion, James King, won the extended two-mile, six-furlong race at Leicester last Thursday week on the Alan Hill-trained 10-year-old Brian Boru gelding Back Bar. The following afternoon at Kelso, Sam Waley-Cohen landed the near three-mile contest on Jett who is now trained by his owner, the rider’s father, Robert.

Before finishing eighth behind Minella Times, Waley-Cohen and the 2011 Flemensfirth gelding (then trained by Jessica Harrington) had made much of the running in last year’s Grand National at Aintree where the French-bred, once Ireland-based Cousin Pascal won the Foxhunters Chase under James King.

Trained by Joe O’Shea, the 10-year-old Great Pretender gelding won for the second time this season (he filled the runner-up spot in two other starts) last Saturday at Haydock where he and King scored by two lengths from Bob And Co whose owner/rider, David Maxwell, won the hunters’ chase at Doncaster on Wednesday on his Philip Hobbs-trained eight-year-old Shantou gelding Dolphin Square.