23 March 2011 Preview: Puckeridge - Horseheath
by James Crispe
DELIGHTFUL CLICHE: on course for a hat-trick
photo: Phil Britt
Gina Andrews, fresh from her brilliant second place aboard Mid Div And Creep in last Friday's Cheltenham Foxhunter, will continue her quest for the National Lady Riders Championship at the Puckeridge Point-to-Point at Horseheath on Saturday March 26.
Andrews, who currently sits proudly atop the Championship standings with 13 winners, rides this course particularly well and has landed four races during the two meetings already staged at the Cambridgeshire venue during 2011.
One of those successes was aboard Bluegun on February 5th and that gelding would have scored again here three weeks later but for a dramatic final fence tumble. That left Castleconner Lad and Salsero to fight out a terrific finish and all three main protagonists are once more among seven possible runners in the opening Club Members race.
Bluegun also holds an engagement in the AGA-sponsored Ladies Open, where Andrews has a good alternative mount in the shape of Delightful Cliché, who has won his last two starts, including one over this course and distance.
Joe Turner, Britain's most successful Point-to-Point Owner / Trainer of all time, as usual has his string approaching top form as the winter abates and he is responsible for three leading AGA Ladies Open candidates - Assassino, Champtho and King du Berlais.
Turner is also responsible for Parkinson and Garundi, who are among the nine-strong Entry for the Mens Open. Other top prospects here are the veteran Northall Lad, who was beaten a neck in the corresponding race here four weeks ago, and Teeton Bollinger, who was a solid third to the classy Border Fusion at Garthorpe on his latest outing.
In total the meeting has attracted 62 Entries for its six races, which begin at 1.30pm and run through until 4.25pm. The steeplechasing will be preceded at 12.30pm by a pair of children's pony races, run over half a circuit of the course bypassing the fences.
Admission will be charged at £10 per head with under 17s allowed in for free. The course is easy to reach by car, four miles west of Haverhill on the A1307, post code CB21 4QF.
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