GO TO SEASON 2004 NEWS ITEMS

SOUTH-EAST POINT-TO-POINT RIDER WINS THIRD CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL TITLE!

No - it's not an Aprill 1st joke. In 1993 Jackie Jenner failed to complete the course in several attempts on her father's Franwill. (in fact Fran definitely didn't!). Since then she has moved on to work at Henrietta Knight's yard. Her current 'charges' there are the Jim Lewis pair Edredon Bleu - winner of the two mile Champion Chase a couple of years ago and another by the name of Best Mate (the two pictured below as they left Henrietta's yard on the way to Gold Cup success at Cheltenham - picture courtesy of Channel 4 attheraces)

Feb. 15th/16th - and yet more South East winners in East Anglia

Without a Ladies race at the Charing meeting Julie Wickens took Storm Castle up to the High Easter meeting and the winner of last season's Ladies Gerrard final continued his winning ways with victory in the Ladies race.

Only a week to gop before the season starts for real in the South East and not an enormous number of horses travel 'up north' where there is a choice of 'close' race meetings. Saturday saw the Cottenham meeting put back by a week courtesy of a covering of snow. Twenty four hours later the action moved just aloong the road to Higham. On day 1 Jenny Gordon came in for the ride on the Joe Turner owned The Wiley Kalmuck - and to the saying of 'beware Jenny Grant on long priced horses at Peper Harow' we can now add 'beware Jenny Gordon on loong priced horses at Cottenham'! In the next race - the Restricted, Philip Hall rode the recent maiden winner Carlton Brae (see story below) but found one other a bit too good for him - although taking second place the winner was long gone. Philip had another ride in the next race - this time on his father's Little Farmer (runner-up in a 2m4f Maiden at Charing in 2001) - with which he made a matching pair of East Anglian maiden victories this year.

The Restricted race at Higham the following day saw Jenny's 'other half' Chris reconnected with the Maiden winner, Itsmyturnnow, from the previous Higham meeting (week 2 below) - a race that included the winner of the other half of that maiden - Phil York on Star Glow - and the latter suggested that it could be a horse worth following this year by winning easily in a time only bettered by the Mens Open. Two races later, in the Ladies Open, the lone East Anglian runner was outnumbered by 3 from the South-East - and this time Jenny Gordon found Bitofamixup in fully co-operation - ironically beating the favourite - ridden by the grand-daughter of the owner for whom she had been victorious the previous day (confusing isn't it?). Phil York had already ridden one second prior to his win on Star Glow and had another in the race after the Ladies when going down by eight lengths - and in third place Philip Hall popped in for another visit to the unsaddling area for placed horses - this time on Sean's Minstrel. Phil York was not finished though - and just as earlier in the day followed up his second place with another visit to the winner's enclosure - this time on the 5 year-old Charlie's Angel.

Three winners - in both halves of the maiden and in the ladies was the net result of the excursion into Horseheath on Saturday. The first fancied South Eastern runner was Real Value who started odds-on in a highly competitive Mens Open. However this turned out to be another of Andrew Hickman's string of places as the favourite went down by a length of a half. In the Ladies Open it looked like another victory for prolific local winner Spring Gale - however experienced rider Zoe Turner failed to see Caroline Holliday reeling her in as she eased down nearing the post and the Kent and Surrey Bloodhound's qualified Dook's Delight got his nose in front at the line. This must have delighted Caroline who missed a large part of last season after being buried by Half Moon Spinney at Penshurst. Having relieved South Eastern rider Jenny Gordon of a few pennies the previous week (see story below) it was now a East Anglian rider whose bank account took a hiding - for her moments of lack of concentration. The winner was trained by Heather Silk who made it a double two races later when China Box took the 'babies' maiden race under Stuart Morris. The second maiden, for the 'senior horse', gave the first win of the season to Philip Hall on the East Sussex qualified Carlton Brae.

Week 2 - South-East account opened (and added to)

After the previous weeks Anglian weather abandonments this resulted in them hosting two meetings over the weekend of Jan. 18th/19th. Saturday was at Higham and after South-East regulars (from the areas borders) the Yorks had taken the first division of a 'split on the day' maiden with Star Glow (a runner-up at Penshurst last year) the second half of the split went to Mike Roberts Itsmyturnnow ridden by Chris Gordon. Following the retirement of Jamie Hawksfield last year Wibbley Wobbley has now moved out of the area to act as a schoolmaster - which he did to good effect in winning the subsequent Novice Riders race. The Mike Roberts/Gordon combination were represented in the next race, the Ladies, with Jenny Gordon (Grant as was) doing the honours. Jenny must have wished that she had pulled up Bitofamixup when he dropped himself out on the last circuit - instead he ran on fast turning for home - beaten 2 short-heads in a blanket finish and the local stewards then relieved Jenny of £125 for riding a poorly-judged race. Novice Anglian riders will need to come south over the QE bridge with large wallets if that is their plan to keep their money North of the Thames.

The following day, at Ampton, the Hickman team travelled up from Sussex. Godstone 2002 winner Sound Gossin was beaten by five lengths into third place in the Restricted but the final race of the day (Novice riders) provided a first victory for Noel Wilson on his own Garrison Friendly - must have made the long journey back in the dark seem that little bit shorter (I presume the pubs were still just about open by the time the winner returned home).

Week 1 - Jan. 5th - Close - but no winners prizes

A number of South East qualified horses made the journey up to Cottenham for the opening meeting of the 2003 season. Maurice Smith's Splash And Dash, ridden by Andrew Hickman, started favourite for the first race of the season, but went down by two lengths to one of the more local horses. Real Value slipped on landing when leading over the penultimate in the Mens Open. This left Cock A Hoop (Chris Gordon) as the area's main challenger but he went down by half a length. Fraser Marshall's Dixon Varner started favourite for the Anglian area's feature race (so soon boys!) - the Novice Riders race (honest!). This time the owner/rider got closer to a victory than Andrew or Chris - but this time the judge's verdict was that he too had been beaten - on this occasion by the minimum distance of a head.