13 April 2011 Preview: Essex - High Easter
by James Crispe
Trainer Joe Turner will bid to win the East Anglia Area's annual feature race, the Ladies' Open for the Warwick Vase, for the 19th time at the Essex Point-to-Point at High Easter on Saturday April 16th.
A total of 75 horses have been entered for a six-race card which gets under way at 1.30pm with an 11-entry Hunt race and runs through until 4.25pm, when there are 16 possible contenders for the Open Maiden. The steeplechasing will be followed by two children's pony races, run over half a circuit of the course but bypassing the obstacles.
Turner is responsible for three of the 11 entries for the Warwick Vase, which boasts maximum prize-money of £500. They are King Du Berlais, the winner of his last three starts, the recent Cottenham scorer, Parrain, and the promising young French import, Champtho.
This race will take place without Gina Andrews, the clear leader in the national lady riders' standings with 16 victories already this season, as she is serving the last day of a careless riding ban picked up in a Wolverhampton flat race way back in mid February.
In her absence, her younger sister Bridget will have to choose between their father Simon's two entries, Inishturk and Maranach, and Ski Dazzle, whom she won on at Cottenham last month and represents the Mike Burman yard that won this race back in 2008 with Parsonhumfrywebber.
The afternoon's other highlight is a three and three-quarter mile Countryside Alliance Club Members Race which has attracted 12 entries. They include the dual course winner Foulstons Ruler, who was surprisingly beaten in a very slowly-run Hunt race at Marks Tey two weeks ago, and Ide No Idea, who was unbeaten in three starts for his current connections prior to finishing second to Forget The Ref on the same Marks Tey card.
The course is just south of the village of High Easter, eight miles north west of Chelmsford at post code CM1 4QP. From M11 Junction 8 take A120 east towards Colchester for roughly eight miles until the Dunmow South exit. Take A130 (direction Chelmsford). As you arrive in Barnston turn right at a mini-roundabout signposted 'The Easters'.
Follow this road all the way to High Easter where you turn right at a T junction beside the cricket ground. Stay on this road through the village and the course is about half a mile out the other side.
Admission will be charged at £10 per head with under 17s allowed in for free.
