No 11th title for Gina Andrews as Izzie Marshall makes mission impossible a reality with a bit to spare

With a few exceptions – Frankel being one – great champions are beaten at some point.

So it was that Gina Andrews exited the Worcestershire track Chaddesley Corbett on Monday evening as the former women’s champion, a description she dreaded like a broken stirrup leather.

After nine straight championships and ten in total, not to mention riding her 400th point-to-point winner just 24 hours earlier, Andrews paid credit to Izzie Marshall, who won with a bit in hand by a score of 24 to 21.

Marshall’s mission impossible had become reality, but unlikely feats have become a theme in her family. In terms of riding improbability, Izzie’s victory has just one rival from the first half of this year, her brother Charlie’s win in last month’s Maryland Hunt Cup, the first by a Briton and achieved on the rank outsider.

James King, with 49 winners, eased home a wide-margin winner of the men’s championship, while Josh Newman (15+ horses), Dean Summersby (6-14) and Rob Varnham (1-5) clinched trainers’ titles for yards of varying sizes. Anna Johnston and Ed Vaughan became novice champion riders, the Nickie Sheppard-trained Grace A Vous Enki the leading horse, and Tim Vaughan the winning-most owner.

There is now the bonus of seeing Marshall, Andrews and King riding at this evening’s hunter-chase card at Stratford. The women are set to meet in two races, including the ladies’ contest (6.35) in which Marshall, claiming a handy 5lb, rides last year’s Aintree Foxhunters’ Chase hero Famous Clermont and Andrews partners course-and-distance winner Captain Biggles.

At his best, Famous Clermont should win, while the indomitable 14-year-old Shantou Flyer under Olive Nicholls cannot be discounted, and Andrews’ best hope of success appears to be Fairly Famous in the featured Pertemps Network Champion Hunters’ Chase (7.35). 

Iskandar Pecos should crown a memorable first season of training for Cheshire’s Hannah Roach in the pointtopoint.co.uk novices’ race (7.05), but the Andrews-ridden Master Templar could be hard to peg back.

Ihandaya: one to note for hunter chases next season

A tribute to the sport’s outgoing chief executive can be seen in the title of the Peter Wright Over And Out Hunters’ Chase (8.05), which he has noted wryly is a handicap. An apt winner would be Back Bar, to which he can now head.

Andrews will be odds-on to reclaim her title next season and she could become Britain’s first champion rider and trainer in the same season, although the second element will depend on the number of horses she handles after the recent opening of a licensed yard by her husband, Tom Ellis.

Punters might like to add to their Racing Post horse trackers three horses who won on the final day, starting with Imperial Pride, who took The Jockey Club’s mares’ final for trainer Oliver Bowd. 

His boss, David Dennis, will now aim her at a race held at a Jockey Club racecourse where, on her first three runs, she has the chance to double any prize-money she wins. She looks more than capable. Two six-year-olds to note for hunter chase successes next season are the imposing Ihandaya, from Nickie Sheppard’s stable, and the Summersby-trained Jet Smart.

The last-named horse has been ridden by Darren Edwards, who won his first race in 2001, and who, approaching his 40th birthday, is about to hang up his saddle. 

Darren Edwards: has been a great ambassador for point-to-pointing

Twenty years ago he won Cheltenham’s Walwyn/Muir Chase on the Martin Pipe-trained Maximize and, before he joined the PPA board two years ago, he had long been an unheralded ambassador for the sport. 

Stalwarts like Edwards are loved by punters for doing the right thing in the saddle time and again, and he will be missed in his West Country domain.

It was a season like no other for waterlogged and abandoned or postponed meetings, and many fixture organisers were left bereft and out of pocket. Thirty-five meetings, more than a quarter of the fixture list, were abandoned.

Meetings that went ahead had very good entries and runner numbers, car parks filled and enduring showers right up to the present have resulted in quality racing to the final bell.

It has not been easy at times, and some trainers have experienced poor seasons, with the mild, soggy weather being blamed for bugs that yards could never quite shake off. Yet this is a hardy sport for hardy participants – they are fewer in number than in decades past, but no less committed. Roll on next season.

Weekend preview

Britain’s new-look, earlier end to the point-to-point season has not been without critics, but it could yet win over doubters.

A rescheduled fixture at Trebudannon this evening, and meetings at Bratton Down on Sunday and tomorrow week at Umberleigh, which has claimed the final day for many a year, will go ahead outside of the season and with no bearing on national championships.

Yet excellent entries have been received and, since half the crowd turn up for a day out rather than to follow titles, everyone can be a winner.

Walkin Out: can win the ladies’ race at Bratton Down

For those who cannot resist a championship battle, there are Devon & Cornwall awards at stake, including a tight fight for the trainers’ award between Josh Newman and Dean Summersby. At Trebudannon, Hell Red can give Summersby another winner and help Darren Edwards towards D&C’s veteran riders’ title.

At Bratton Down, the men’s open race can go to Teresa Clark’s Ninth Wave, whose form when pipped by Lagan Valley last time out was given a boost when the winner ran a cracking race at Chaddesley Corbett on Monday. The ladies’ race can go to the Leslie Jefford-trained mare Walkin Out, who will seal the area’s women riders’ title for Anna Johnston.

Today

Trebudannon, Cornwall, TR8 4LP – first race 5.00. 6 races, 93 entries

Sunday

Bratton Down, Devon, EX31 4SG - 2.00. 6 races, 93 entries

More information at pointtopoint.co.uk & gopointing.com

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