Cirencester Races – rebranded for the first time from its previous incarnation as the VWH point-to-point – was able to go ahead on Saturday for the first time since 2022, having had to abandon due to waterlogging in both of the past two years, and the customary huge crowd were treated to a dry day and five races with 20 runners in total, the Pegasus Club Conditions Race being void due to a lack of declarations.
Trainer James Henderson had taken the honours with a double at the last running of the fixture and repeated the feat this year, although with son George replacing his younger brother Fred in the saddle. Their first winner was Bloodstone in the opening Earl & Countess Bathurst Members Race, in which just two faced the starter. It was a bloodless (forgive the pun) victory for the ten-year-old, who led throughout from sole rival It’s For Alan, drawing further clear as the race progressed and eventually coming home a fence and a half clear.
Bloodstone had pulled up on all four starts since scoring at Lockinge in 2023 and James told me, “It’s all down to Caroline Bartram, who’s come to work from us from Mick Easterby’s. I was unsure if we should run him again this season, but she’s produced a happy horse, and George has been eventing him. He’s had leg and wind problems and was just going to be a hunter – he’s a fun horse, who really enjoyed himself today.” His owner-trainer laughed when I asked about plans, saying, “Come on Jake, you know I never have a plan!”
James admitted that he only returned Bloodstone to training as a work companion for new recruit Pax – the only other horse in his Buscot yard, near Faringdon, and the ex-Irish horse completed the stable double in the concluding Equi Supplies Maiden Race, for which five went to post. It was potentially a lucky victory, for I Don’t Know, with whom Pax had disputed the lead throughout, was just in front when his saddle slipped and caused him to unseat at the last. This left the favourite to come home 15 lengths clear of King Of Quinta, with Carricktwiss a further 30 lengths back in third.
“I’ll convince myself he’d have won anyway,” smiled James of the six-year-old Pax, who was building on his Garthorpe second. “We got him for £8,000 from the ThoroughBid online sale as part of a J P McManus dispersal and he’s been fit and ready to run since December. We’ll go to the Old Berkshire meeting at Lockinge next and try to get Fred back in the saddle!”
Bloodstone and Pax gave James and George their first victories since 2023 and – for George – a first double since 2013. He admitted to being in two minds about returning to race-riding this year, telling me – in the presence of wife Georgie – “I’m a married man now and my priorities have changed. But Bloodstone’s a family favourite, Pax is a nice maiden and only Dad’s stupid enough to put me up!” The wins took George – who also won the John Manners trophy for rider of the day – to a career tally of 27, three behind Fred, and the older brother grinned, “It would be good to catch him up.”
The day’s showpiece event was the Arkell’s Brewery Mixed Open Race, another match and another facile front running success, as Southfield Lily made all in the hands of trainer Lily Bradstock to come home 12 lengths in front of Innisfree Lad, scoring unchallenged despite a bad mistake four out.
The nine-year-old mare was emulating her half-brother Southfield Theatre, who had taken the same contest in 2022, and the trainer’s mother Sara gave me an update on the popular 17-year-old veteran, who was also due to run today, telling me, “He came back a bit stiff from schooling. He’s fine, but we need to look after him.” As for Southfield Lily, Sara said, “Look at her. She’s not even blowing. She’s got such a funny attitude – she probably lost focus four out because she thought she’d already won.”
“I was a bit worried stepping up in class to an Open,” continued Sara, “But she got another easy win. She loves this ground, and we’ll keep running her and see if she can match her brother and be champion pointer (an award Southfield Theatre won in 2022). That’s always a nice target and we should be able to find more opportunities for her.” Quizzed as to the mare’s habit of been reluctant to start, Sara confirmed, “She seems to be OK at the moment. She’s a proper ‘alpha male’ at home and everything happens at her speed – although she bullies the humans more than the horses!”
Lily admitted afterwards of the mare’s blunder, “She can get lazy when she’s in front on her own and just buckled on landing, and didn’t quite get her feet out of the ground, which is quite tacky. But she loves racing and jumping – she keeps running off with me at home.” The mare is now four from four this season and Lily confirmed champion pointer would be a target, although, “We’ll see if we can find nice races but won’t over-run her.” Asked why Southfield Lily seems to have improved this season, Lily said, “She was in for a long time last year and didn’t really have a holiday.”
The biggest field of the day was seven in the Dubarry Conditions Race, which went to seasonal debutant Ahead Of The Game, jointly trained by sisters Marita and Rhondda Warner-King and giving jockey Sam Burton a first win since 2019 after a four-season sabbatical. Mid-division early, the 11-year-old (who had won five of his last 16 starts and been placed in the other 11) took it up after a circuit and – while challenged firstly by Grenadine Save, then Cotton End – he was left clear when the latter unseated two out and ran on well to score by four lengths from the former, with favourite Galileo Silver never able to land a blow another length away in third.
I spoke to Marita afterwards while her sister was busy with the horse and she laughed, “Rhondda does all the work – I’m having a baby so I can’t. Sam’s been riding him out most days and I also want to thank Liv Oakley, who does so much with him.” Marita admitted that the aim, on his first run of the year was, “To finish, rather than to win, He normally starts at the back and picks the other horses off, but he’s been a little bit keener lately. He’s so consistent, but only on this ground, and I won’t like to say if he’d have won if Cotton End hadn’t unseated.” The sisters have been training at Brookthorpe, near Gloucester, since their father Jason – a true stalwart of the pointing community – passed away in 2021.
“This is my first season riding since before Covid,” Sam told me. “I wasn’t in a great place mentally and was struggling with my weight, so fell out of love with the game. But Marita and Rhondda got in touch and asked me to come and ride out, I started going in once a week, then one day became six or seven. Last year, I was getting the buzz back and – minus four-and-a-half stone later, I can now ride at 11 stone again! That was my sixth ride back, and my first winner.”
Four ran in the Craig Fuller Property Search Restricted Race, which saw the closest finish of the day, as Tellmesomethingood and champion female jockey Izzie Hill prevailed by the shortest of short heads from the game O’Hallorans Castle. The Alan Hill-trained seven-year-old was prominent throughout and, when he took the lead three out and quickened a couple of lengths clear, the race looked over. However, O’Hallorans Castle wouldn’t give up and nearly overhauled the odds-on favourite on the run-in after Tellmesomethingood blundered at the last. Indeed, many observers thought the result could have gone the other way or at least be a dead heat.
The winner is jointly owned by his trainer and myself, so it was great to have a winner at the first point-to-point course I ever went to, all of 44 years ago (Sara Bradstock rode the runner-up in the Ladies Open that day and Alan’s wife Lawney led-in the winner!) Alan himself said, “He’s a lovely horse but the owner is difficult! Seriously, we learnt from his Chaddesley Corbett debut that he prefers better ground, and I think he’d have won nicely today but for that bad mistake at the last – he jumped well otherwise. He doesn’t do a load in front but he’s very genuine and found more every time he was challenged.”
“He did everything I asked, quickened well and jumped two out boldly, then was short at the last and lost momentum, while O’Hallorans Castle winged it. “He was really game on the run-in and kept going. Coming to the line, I thought I’d won, but on the line itself, I knew it would be down to the bob of the heads,” was winning jockey Izzie’s honest verdict on the race. As for plans for the winner, “Tellmesomethingood has proved he likes quicker ground, which will help going into spring, and he’s also versatile, having won over 2m4f and three miles. I think a flat track would suit him well.”