The Fernie point-to-point, the penultimate meeting for this season in the Midlands area, took place at Dingley on Sunday 4th May. Once again,we are very grateful to the incredible team at Dingley for their hard work on the ground, which attracted 28 runners to race between the flags on ground which was officially given as Good.
The feature race of the afternoon, indeed the feature race for the Midlands season, is the Welland Valley Feeds Fernie Four-Miler and this year it brought a sense of deja vu to the Leicestershire track.
It may have been a mile longer for this meeting but the first three to pass the flags did so in the same order as they did in the Open here a fortnight ago. Odds-on favourite Aramax, ridden again by Alex Chadwick for Jennifer Owen and the Whiskey and Water Partnership, repelled a spirited challenge from George Gorman’s Larry to provide the sort of finish which befits such a prestigious race, crossing the line half a length ahead. Dale Peters, a winner on Friday evening at the Cheltenham hunter chase evening, rode Thunderstruck, owned by the Walpoles and Mary Cherry Downes, to complete the top three, five lengths behind. “I think that horse speaks for himself,” Alex Chadwick said. “He always turns up and always tries his hardest. There are not many horses like him that have achieved as much as he has from since he was a novice and still has the will to keep wanting to win now.”
The afternoon began with a maiden race, kindly sponsored by Watling JCB, which saw My Jetta Plane and Ellie Callwood use their seven-pound advantage to good effect, beating a pair of Andrews siblings into second and third. Validation, ridden by Gina Andrews, owned and trained by Nigel Padfield, challenged hard in the run-in but failed to overhaul the winner by half a length. Jack Andrews and Eoin’s Charm were a little further back in third, for Stuart Morris and the Pytchley with Woodland Partnership. Ellie said, “[She] travelled strongly and her jumping was quick and neat. She got a bit lonely after the last but was always doing enough to cross the line in front. She deserved to win today.”
The Tattersalls Conditions Race for Novice Riders followed this and saw a return to form for Ragnar Lodbrok, owned by the Whiskey and Water Partnership and trained by Jennifer Owen. This time the Fame and Glory ten-year-old was ridden by Conal Kavanagh, who has been working for David Pipe but drove up to Leicestershire to ride for the Owens before starting work for them in Newmarket on Monday morning. Drakes Well (Thomas Hutsby) and Master Malcolm (Miss A. Richmond-Watson) battled it out for second place, a long way behind, with the former being given the decision on the line by a neck.
Gina Andrews trains and rides Cheytac, which had predictably started the seven-runner Sharnford Tractors Restricted Race as favourite and went on to win by about three lengths. The six-year-old, owned by Cliff Myers, had previously won a restricted at Fakenham and carried a 5lb penalty, but was still too strong for Il Padrino (Ellie Holder) in second and Cash Or Card (Dale Peters) in third.
Dale Peters may have been having one of those days thus far, but victory on Mountain Assault in the Level 2 Conditions Race for older horses, sponsored by Berry Accountants and Berry Wealth Management, will have helped a lot. This advanced Dale’s ridden winners tally to 197 and his number of winners trained by him in point-to-points to 99. Sadly, this had become a match race with the predictable loss of pace, but favourite No Risk des Flos, trained by Gina Andrews and ridden by Rupert Stearn made it a decent race finishing just two lengths adrift.
Fred Hutsby’s Carpe Diem had a rather unexpected change of jockey before the last race of the day, the A & J Sectional Buildings Maiden Race with no weight for age allowance. His Son Tom, who had ridden two races earlier in the day, was taken ill, forcing a late jockey change in the form of Gina Andrews. Carpe Diem made all and won in fine style to beat Mr Doodlebug, a six-year-old owned by Louise Bevin and ridden by Paddy Barlow, by a length and a half, with Secret Plan (George Gorman) five lengths behind them. We now have a short break in the Midlands before the Fitzwilliam meeting back at Dingley on Saturday the 24th May. Tickets are already available online on our ticketing page for £15 (+£1) to include a racecard and will of course be available on the day for £15 without the racecard. Their card of six races includes two maiden races and two open races as well as a conditions race and a restricted and will conclude the season for our area. We look forward to seeing you there!
Click HERE to purchase your raceday tickets for Saturday 24th May 2025
