Over the next few weeks we are going to look back at the 2019/20 point-to-point season and highlight some 'Moments of the season'. The second video in this series looks back at the dominant display of WISHING AND HOPING on his seasonal debut at Ffos Las back in December 2019...
Pulverising performances came no better than Wishing And Hoping's demolition of 11 rivals in a mixed open race at Ffos Las in December.
It was not an occasion for faint-hearted spectators, for a cleaving wind was whipping off the sea and cannoning down the home straight, one the runners had to negotiate three times. Wishing And Hoping doesn't do tucked in, and with Alex Edwards having faith in his partner they took a front-running role and stayed there.
Off the final bend the race was becoming a procession – only the good mare Midnight Folie was in hailing distance, and when Tom Doggrell wisely pulled her up before the last – a fence at which the final surviving straggler My Murphy refused – Wishing And Hoping was left in isolation. Further back in the home straight no fewer than another seven defeated runners were wearily cantering on the spot looking like refugees in retreat from a war zone.
Wishing And Hoping, who is known as Danny at Phil Rowley's Shropshire stables, ran three more times during the abbreviated season, winning hunters' chases at Taunton and Catterick and finishing second to the smart Alcala (who was in receipt of 10lb) at Haydock. At Catterick Wishing And Hoping gave 18lb to the useful runner-up Absainte and beat her 25 lengths.
Wishing And Hoping (Alex Edwards) and trainer Philip Rowley at his schooling field
Rowley says of Peter and Trish Andrews' nine-year-old: "Danny stays here during the summer and he's now out at grass, but he would have gone to Aintree last week [for the Randox Health Foxhunters' Chase].
"He's quite a complex character, mentally which can become physically, but he has a lot of ability. We've known him a long time having worked with him before he went into training with Alan King [he rejoined Rowley for pointing during the 2018/19 season].
"He jumped really well at Ffos Las and Catterick, but at Haydock he wasn't quite 100 per cent, and we were giving away a lot of weight in that ground. He had a little issue ten days before the race and I was sure it had been ironed out, but maybe it wasn't completely.
"We went to Catterick with confidence, but as they cantered to the start I noticed another runner, Waterloo Warrior, had been heavily backed, and into a shade of odds-on on one or two boards. I thought 'Hello, we've missed something here', but Danny made all and won easily.
"We're very lucky to have him and Peter and Trish are great owners.
"Next season he is likely to run in a point-to-point to cement his confidence and then go hunter chasing. He would need to relax more to be considered for Cheltenham's Foxhunter Chase – you don't see horses who run a little bit too freely winning that race."
Check out 'Moments of the season' each and every Wednesday.