Gina Andrews the latest in a long line of wonderful female champions - even if it was a slow path to acceptance

Britain’s most successful male and female point-to-point riders, Will Biddick and Gina Andrews, are on the cusp of major landmarks.

Biddick is one shy of 600 victories in British point-to-points and could hit that milestone at Larkhill in Wiltshire on Sunday, while Andrews sits on 398 winners. They have won 18 national titles between them.

Racing and point-to-pointing provide an even field on which men and women compete, but in both forms it was a slow path to acceptance for female riders. After World War II, Jenny Renfree and Pat Tollit mopped up national titles despite restrictions on races that women could ride in. By the 1980s and 90s, Polly Curling and Alison Dare were serving it up to the men – and they were backed by male trainers in Richard Barber and Dick Baimbridge.

Curling won three titles with seasonal scores that beat the top male tally each time, while six-time champion Dare showed toughness and admirable determination to return to the sport after a terrible leg injury nearly forced retirement. The following season, in 1996, she rode 31 winners from 43 rides.

Polly Gundry became the next multiple champion, although Rachael Green and Claire Allen broke her monopoly to win one title apiece. Gundry was an incredible horsewoman, masterful at getting a horse jumping and strong in a finish. She had kindness, too, being helpful and always willing to help those new to the sport. On one occasion, at Buckfastleigh in Devon, she put an arm round me and said: “You will get there, it takes time, but you will get there.” Coming from one of the sport’s icons, that was encouraging.

Green and Allen followed Curling and Dare into high-pressure jobs with Barber and Baimbridge, yet they produced the goods time and time again. Green, who is now married to Anthony Honeyball, was the ultimate professional and held her own when later riding under rules. Allen retired at just 24 having achieved all she set out to do, and says: ‘‘At 13 I set myself the goal of riding in races, becoming national champion, retiring, getting married, having children, and to have set up in business by the time I was 25. I did just that.”

Since Gundry retired, Andrews has taken on the mantle. She is tough, tactically superb and as professional as an amateur can be. She has the ability to win on horses others wouldn’t and is stronger than many men, yet having been lucky enough to have ridden against her for many seasons, I have seen a soft side too and rarely witnessed anyone so heartbroken at losing a horse.

Andrews has smashed records that Gundry set, winning ten championships to her predecessor’s eight and accumulating nearly 100 winners more in point-to-points alone – and she is far from finished.

Britain’s Punchestown double

There was a terrific double for young ex-British point-to-pointers on Sunday at Punchestown, where Touch Me Not won the Grade 2 novice chase and Kalypso’chance romped home in the bumper.

Gordon Elliott, who seems to have noticed value in buying young British pointers, went to Tattersalls Cheltenham and secured Touch Me Not from Tom Ellis’s yard for £150,000 and Kalypso’chance out of Jack Teal’s stable for £85,000. Both horses look well bought now.

Weekend preview

Larkhill and Hexham host this weekend’s meetings and quality horses have been entered at both.

Cheshire trainer Hannah Roach, recuperating at home after a fall on the gallops, saddled four winners on the season’s opening day at Knightwick and plans to run Time Leader in the ladies’ race and Paul Marvel in the mixed open at Hexham.

The Roach-trained Rewritetherules and Amie Waugh’s Killer Clown both won decisively at Knightwick and it will be hard to split them if lining up in the conditions race.

The 2m4f maiden has attracted entries from top handlers and there are three four-year-old debutants to note. Jack The Lad from John Dawson’s Yorkshire yard, Panjandrum, trained in Warwickshire by Gina Andrews, and an intriguing entry from Somerset-based Josh Newman in the shape of Five Quarters. Newman says: ‘‘If he runs Darren Andrews will ride him, but the horse is also entered at Larkhill.”

Entries for the men’s open race at Larkhill are top class, with last season’s champion pointer, the six-time winner Grace A Vous Enki, facing the likes of One For Rosie and the ex-rules performers Saint Calvados and My Drogo.

In the ladies’ equivalent, last season’s women’s champion Izzy Hill’s mount I K Brunel is likely to be sent off favourite but faces a tough opponent in the Lily Bradstock-trained Myth Buster, who has the benefit of a recent run.

Weekend fixtures

Sunday

Hexham, Northumberland, NE46 2JP. First race 12.30. 6 races, 80 entries.
Larkhill, Wiltshire, SP4 8QR. 12.00. 6 races. 78 entries.

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.