08 February 2011 Preview: Vine & Craven - Barbury Racecourse
by Robin Gray
Six races have attracted 187 entries and it is likely that there will be divisions if declarations exceed safety limits. In any case, top class sport is a certainty on one of the best racecourses in the country.
Jenny Gordon, winner of last season's Champion Trainer award - now sponsored by Black Swan Tyres & Exhaust of Wrecclesham, expects to saddle five runners. First out will be Presenting Express in the Novice Riders race (12.00pm) ridden by his owner Fenton Ramsahoye. Valvigneres follows in the two and a half mile Maiden, but in the Mixed Open Jenny will saddle both Launde, mount of owner Anthony Ward-Thomas, and Fauntleroy also owner ridden by Camilla Ewart. Finally, Circle of Fifths represents the Morestead stable in the Open Maiden with the promising teenager Tom Cannon, a potential professional, in the saddle.
Sam Waley-Cohen, the only amateur rider to win the prestigious King George VI Chase when he scored on Long Run last month, partners his father's Ashtown Boy in the Restricted in which veteran Godfrey Maundrell partners his own Silent Gunner. Godfrey will also ride Droppy's, the likely winner of the Members race at the end of the day.
Racegoers are charged £10 a head and under sixteens go free. The racecourse is well signed off the A346 from Marlborough and the A4361 from Wroughton.
