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EARTH DREAM: The former Ditcheat resident helped trainer's son James break his duck
photo: Neale Blackburn

John Ferguson has sent out some smart recruits to score under Rules this season, but none of his 14 winners will have given him or his wife Fiona as much pleasure as seeing their son James record his first success in the Mens Open on Earth Dream.

Earth Dream was purchased as a schoolmaster by John from Paul Nicholls on the understanding that he may return to Ditcheat in a couple of years when the champion trainer's daughter Megan is old enough to ride in Points, although "Alexander may have something to say about that!" laughed John, referring to James's younger brother, 15, who cannot wait to get started next season.

James, 22, is in his final year at Reading University and in his time there has been riding out for Alan and Lawney Hill.

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"He's following the same path as James Tudor and Tim Vaughan, and look what's become of them - a life of debauchery!" Lawney recalls two former University students who also spent many hours riding out at Woodway Farm.

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"Alan kept telling me I'd got to get him a winner," smiled John, so it was ironic that the horse which followed Earth Dream home, albeit at a respectful distance, was the Hills' own Ravethebrave, under son Joe.

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The Ferguson yard had also taken the previous Restricted with the well-regarded Now Then Charlie, who romped home in the hands of John's assistant James Owen. It was a welcome return to the winner's enclosure for the jockey, who missed most of 2010/11 with a badly broken foot.

Now Then Charlie was bought as a store at Fairyhouse and gets his name from one of John's regular sayings when addressing Alexander, who is known at home as Charlie. "We fancied him big time," admitted James, so perhaps the only surprise was his starting price of 5/1, which appeared generous in light of his respectable performance in a hot Novices' Chase at Chepstow in October.

Irony was again the name of the game, as Now Then Charlie was found for John by his great friend Nick Wright, whose Stress finished runner-up.

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Nick must have thought his luck had changed at the end of the afternoon when It Was Me led on the run-in in the second of the 2m4f Maidens, but he was mugged close home by Midnight King, who was given a good ride by Pete Mann.

Midnight King, whose full sister Midnight Minx is in training with Anthony Honeyball and won a Bumper in November, her only start, is trained by Julie Marles for owner-breeder Jo Mann - "I bred the jockey as well!" He has undergone two wind operations, and may return to racing under Rules at the end of the season.

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It was a sixth comeback ride for Pete, who decided to retire at the end of the 2009/10 campaign. "I was fed up with losing weight, and I didn't touch a horse for 18 months," he admitted. "Then I schooled a horse for mum and got the bug again. It doesn't seem so hard to lose weight when you've got nice horses to ride."

Although there are some who might think that going for a five and a half mile run before Christmas lunch does not equate to "not so hard."

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The one which got away from the Fergusons was Macklin, who looked to be hacking up in the 3m Maiden when failing to negotiate the final bend and almost disappearing into the hedge. Somehow James Owen got him going again, but although he was making up ground hand over fist in the straight the post came too soon and he had to concede victory to Oscar The Myth.

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If it was a red-letter day for James Ferguson, it proved doubly so for Oscar The Myth's pilot, 17-year-old Patrick Smith, who just one hour earlier had opened his account in the Novice Riders' race on Flowersoftherarest.

Both Patrick's winners are trained by David Phelan, with whom the rider is based full-time, having started working at the yard when he was 14.

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David bought Oscar The Myth as an unbroken three-year-old for clients of Jamie Snowden, Ray Antell and Derek Coles, but having lost his confidence over fences the horse returned to David after a disappointing run at the end of October.

Neither owner was present at Cottenham to witness the victory. Ray had gone to Newbury to watch Rey Nacarado, in which he has a share, land the spoils in the Mandarin Chase, while Derek, laughed David, "has been racing so much over Christmas that he's used up all his tokens and has had to spend some time with the family!"

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Flowersoftherarest looked a quirky character in his early races last season but, David pointed out, he has proved a good ride for a novice, having also won for Tom Cannon and Brendan Powell, both making a name as Conditionals, plus Freddie Mitchell.

"He's not the easiest to get fit," said David. "He doesn't like lads riding him, and he tends to do as he pleases with the girls!"

He is owned by a syndicate of five, although the decibel level as they cheered him home might have indicated that 25 would be a more realistic number.

David, who buys and sells a lot of horses and breaks yearlings, has a team of 15 Pointers at his Brook, Ashford, yard, although several are youngsters who will be taken gently this year and will not get much racing.

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Freddie, incidentally, who was concussed in a Cottenham fall on the season's opening day, is now feeling 100% and is raring to get back in the saddle. He was told he would be off games for three months, but he will be seeing his GP this week and hoping he will get the nod to start riding out. In the meantime he is keeping himself fit on his equicisor - "There's not too much chance of falling off that," he commented!

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The women who filled the first three places in last season's national championship were in the frame in the Ladies' Open, although in a different order. It fell to Sam Drake, who took the minor title honours, to land the prize here on her Leac An Scail, formerly with Sue and Harvey Smith, for whom Sam rides out once a week.

"They told me I needed a decent horse and said they'd got just the one for sale," grinned Sam, who was paying her first visit to the Cambridgeshire track. "I was cooked two out [where Gina Andrews and Spellchecker drew ten lengths clear], but when we got round the bend he saw Gina was stopping and he thought ‘come on then!'"

"He's a monkey at home," she continued. "He spends half his time galloping off with me, but if you try to work him on his own he doesn't go at all!"

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"None of my clothes fitted when I came back." Sam's summer of travelling, firstly to New Zealand, where she rode a winner, and subsequently to France, where she, Jacqueline Coward and Jo Mason spent four weeks riding out at Guillaume Macaire's, obviously involved a certain amount of eating as well as working.

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Another "bit of a lad" at home is Accessallareas, who won Division One of the 2m4f Maiden for trainer Sarah-Jayne Davies and rider Jeremy Mahot. He has returned to Sarah, who broke him in and ran him from her yard as a five-year-old before his Irish part-owner decided to campaign him in his homeland in the spring of 2011.

He now belongs to Dave Bevan, who bought him just a few days earlier, and who has already enjoyed success this season, his Watoscar having triumphed at Chaddesley on December 27.

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A few boos could be heard from the grandstand as Timeshift made short work of his opponents in the opening Conditions race, no doubt from those punters who got their fingers burned when the horse never got into the race here five weeks previously.

Trainer Zoe Hammond, who always rides Timeshift at home, admitted to being really disappointed on that occasion, but she knew her charge was in good form leading up to this contest. "He's been hunting a fair bit, and he's like a coiled spring ready to let rip," she said.

A mucus problem last year was solved by the purchase of a hay steamer, which is now in constant use at the Hammonds' Worcestershire yard. "Even the pony gets steamed hay," laughed Zoe.

The victory was a boost for owner Don Constable, whose wife sadly died, after a long illness, before Christmas.

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"He'd make a lovely schoolmaster." Zoe is thinking ahead to next season, when son Charlie will be making his debut.

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"Pressure is for tyres." Rider Dave Mansell shrugs off Mike Hammond's belief that the pressure was on him for Timeshift to perform.

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