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Week 4 - and it is seconds only this time.

Although the racing was closer to home than the previous week the South East runners had less success at Cottenham. Splash And Dash was a confident favourite for the Mens Open. With the yard already in winning ways the previous week connections must be a bit worried about him finishing fifteen lengths off the pace. He would need to perform a lot better next time out to justify taking a position in the line-up at Cheltenham. Little Farmer, under Philip Hall, made most in this race only to be run out of it from the last obstacle. David Dunsdon on Pa Pierre only succumbed by a head in the Restricted. Andrew Hickman had the aptly named No Reward in the runners-up slot in the 'oldies' Maiden but this time the official margin was a somewhat clearer 30 lengths.

Time for someone to buy a new tape measure at Cottenham? The difference in the times between the two and a half mile maiden and the three mile maidens was about one minute and forty seconds. With the average pointer covering a mile in just over two minutes this would suggest that the youngsters were unlikely to have travelled much further than two and a quarter miles - no guarantee therefore that the winners will continue their winning ways when asked to travel 30% further in Restricteds.

Week 3 - and a hat-trick of winners in East Anglia

The East Anglian meeting was at Ampton - up in the top half of East Anglia but several horses travelled up country. Chris Gordon and Peter Bull each had a placed ride in the first two races of the day. In the fifth race of the day the first winner of the day came in the form of Kincora in the Ladies Open. Now 13 Kincora is normally known for his successes towards the end of a season when the ground is firming up. Although several present reckoned that it was quite boggy at the bottom end of the course the official going of 'Good to Firm' must have been close to the mark. Making it a 230-1 South-East double in the Open races the Sara Hickman trained Pendle Hill followed up in the next race. The following Restricted race also went to an East Sussex & Romney Marsh qualified horse - this time to Teach Altra - owned and trained by Mike Roberts and piloted by Chris Gordon.

Week 2 - and the first South-East winner of the season

The second day of the 2004 Point-to-Point season. The South-East has finally got its act together and avoided having two race meetings on the same day when they were only 53 miles apart on a day when there were thirteen meetings spread across the country. One has to therefore be impressed by the organisation that managed to arrange for two race meetings to be on at the same time within 50 miles of each other on a day which had but three race meetings in the whole of England to sort out!

Phil York shunned both 'local' meetings from his base near the Hampshire/Surrey borders to travel up to East Anglia where he picked up a pair of wins with Jacob's Choice and Star Glow. These two don't count as South East wins as both horses were qualified with the Hampshire based Staff College hunt. Stuart Robinson took the following race, the Restricted, on his own Great Jubilee to open the South Eastern account north of the Thames.

First success for the South East qualified horses in 2004 is therefore credited to Pippa Hall on the father-in-laws Tom Cobbler in the Ladies race at Tweseldown. Third in this race was Bitofamixup (ridden & trained by Jenny Gordon). Obviously a serious feather in the cap for Pippa. Jenny will likely not be seriously disheartened - the winner of last years Intrium Justia (that's the Stratford Horse & Hound Gold Cup in 'old money') also started 2003 with a defeat. Jenny presumably starting the season by going west rather then north to avoid being requested to make further donations to the East Anglian stewards fund for 'not speeding enough'.

The East Anglians must be sending their share of the rain down south. Whilst Kent has had many downpours in the last couple of months the going at Higham was still 'good to firm' and their largest field of the day was an enormous eight. The Welsh don't start racing for a couple more weeks - the Weekenders point-to-point 'supplement' was but a single sheet this week - in a couple of weeks time the same amount of paper will probably be required just to list the results of the Welsh races that took place before noon.

Week 1 - Jan. 4th - and a quiet start

This year just a handful of South East qualified horses made the journey up to Cottenham for the opening meeting of the season. None of the local 'big names' made the trip and the best that was made was a third.