27 April 2010 Report: Berkeley - Woodford
by Pete Mansell
CLAIRE ALLEN: rode a double at Woodford
photo: David Dew
The warm weather brought out a large crowd who were treated to an excellent days racing and a double for our reigning Area champion Claire Allen from Berkeley.
She currently leads the race for this years National Title and the two winners will help her achieve that objective.
Alison Dare was National Champion on six occasions and the Sherston-based Trainer's post-race assessment of the Ladies Open, "You deserve a medal after that success," summed up the race in one sentence.
Claire's mount Rocklandslad made a series of mistakes, but these failed to make any impact and when the horses reappeared from the shadows of Berkeley Castle Rocklandslad was being challenged by the favourite Big Moment while Royal Auclair and Balinova were trailing in their wake.
That situation did not change dramatically over the final two fences which meant that Rocklandslad came away with a slender advantage that was maintained all the way to the line.
Miss Dare described the horse "as having his own technique for jumping fences", while the Jockey reported "he jumped the last brilliantly" which is more than can be said for his earlier efforts.
This victory was a reward for Owners David and Lynne Cullimore, who farm part of the Woodford course and have been involved in its preparation in the lead up to the meeting.
Earlier in the afternoon Miss Allen had teamed up with Ned The Post to land the Members race for Owner Roger Maggs.
Cherington-based Magg's blanket approach (he had three runners) paid off when Ned The Post came to challenge the long time leader Lord Goschen at the 16th and, having claimed the lead, the six-year-old was never going to relinquish it.
There was another close finish in the Intermediate, which went to the Sue Collett-Owned, Fergal O'Brien-trained and Mark Wall-ridden Bradley.
Bradley had a couple of lengths advantage approaching the final obstacle but Mark Wall had already been hard at work for some time and it was obvious the horse was coming to the end of his tether, but he was not for passing and eventually claimed victory by a neck.
"We did not want to make too much use of him so I told Mark to drop him out for a circuit and take it up three out" reported O'Brien after the race.
"We took him to the Sales last year and did not get a bid for him". On this performance, that has to be other people's loss and the Collett's gain.
The biggest surprise of the afternoon came in the four-runner Mens Open, which resulted in the defeat of the odds on favourite Cedrus Libani, who was unable to cope with the challenge of James Pine during the final half-mile of this contest.
Nine runners meet their engagements for the Restricted but they may as well have stayed at home as this resulted in a pillar to post victory for Cirencester Trainer Nell Buckler and the Mark Wall-ridden Hivikos.
Mark noted after the race "he was a bit slow to start with but the further he went the better he got", while the winning Owner reported "the horse was originally brought for my daughter Cary to ride but she has been forced to retire. We'll see how the ground is but I would like to take him to Cheltenham for a bit of fun".
Gypsy Marks victory in division two of the Maiden owed much to the persistence of Bibury Jockey Richard Mason. His mount lost touch with the leaders turning for home but Mason refused to accept defeat and inch by inch they started to reel the leaders in and finally claimed victory in the final strides.
