A LEGEND says goodbye, a dead heat, a first winner for a young jockey, a first training double and a Bratton triple crown thrilled the massive crowd who saw late season point-to-pointing at its best at the Tiverton Staghounds meeting at Bratton Down last weekend, writes Granville Taylor.

Tribute must be paid to the organisers, who defied the prolonged dry spell by producing safe jumping ground thanks to the use of a mechanical “aggravator” on the track. 

The old moorland turf was rendered quite springy, without jar, in the words of senior jockeys.

The legend is equine in the shape of the stocky 12-year-old Monsieur Gibraltar, well known to National Hunt and pointing followers with a total of 28 career victories under both codes. 

He beat sole opponent Los Alamos (Molly Landau) by 15 lengths for his fourth success at this track in the Greenslade Taylor Hunt sponsored Ladies’ Open.

 Ella Orttewell was in the saddle in the colours of her parents Sophie and Alex as the veteran made all the running. 

”This will be his last race. He doesn’t owe anybody anything. He will retire now to go hunting. It is nice to retire him sound,” said Ella, whose partner Christopher Barber was saddling his 21st point-to-point winner of the season. 

The judge could not separate Hold Me Tight (Chloe Emsley) and Sparta Maestro (Martin (Fly) McIntyre) after a thrilling finish to the nine-runner Maiden sponsored by the Sampson Family in memory of the much-missed point-to-point enthusiast Stafford Sampson. 

Hold Me Tight is trained by Ed Walker for Wendy Jarrett, and the rider remarked: “I held him up as usual and his jumping was his asset.” 

The Yeats gelding Sparta Maestro was sent out by Nicholas Williams for Raglan, Monmouthshire, owner Carmen Goldsworthy. 

Her husband, Gwilyn, said: “We have bred and owned pointers for over 50 years. We got this one at Ascot sales but he hasn’t run much. He jumped into a silage pit a while ago and injured himself. Fly rode him well today.”

The Witheridge Garage Restricted saw a first winner for 17-year-old Cheltenham College student Ivor Herbert, who was partnering Chato Santana for his parents Ben and Sara. 

The young jockey gave a cool ride to this former Irish Maiden winner who drew right away from Businessman (Darren Edwards) and Queen Kalamba (Amber Jackson-Fennell) round the final bend.

The winner had made the three-hours-plus journey from Nicky Sheppard’s Hereford yard and was equipped with first-time cheek pieces. 

“I spent a few days at Will Biddick’s yard during half term last week and Will also gave me good advice how to ride this course,” explained the young rider.

The champion jockey had earlier landed his 53rd winner of the season as Brian Palfrey’s Skilful Lord completed a notable training double for Danny Kenealy in a dramatic Intermediate sponsored by Moore Scarrott. 

Champions Hill unseated Callum Pritchard when hitting a marker on the bend after the ditch then carried out James King’s mount Hold Your Fort when running loose at the 10th fence. 

This left Skilful Lord and Biddick in front and the nine-year-old was able to shake off the sustained challenge of Steel Express. 

Stoodleigh, near Tiverton, based trainer Danielle (Danny) Kenealy said: “This is my first double. I use Nigel Hawke’s gallops. Skilful Lord likes this track and firm going. He was hunted by Brian (Palfrey) during the winter and came to us in February.” 

Solo

Humaniste had set up the stable double when left solo at halfway in the Winston Pincombe Land Rovers Hunt race. 

Jockey Ella Herbison, the leading lady novice rider in the area, was in the saddle for her seventh winner of the season on a horse described as “enigmatic” by his trainer. 

“He came to us from Ascot sales a year ago for owner Kieran Jones and went from running over one mile six furlongs on the flat to being the leading point-to-point horse in Devon and Cornwall,” said the trainer.

Callum Pritchard had not ridden a winner until seven weeks ago, but his last 19 rides have now yielded eight successes and given him pole position for the National Novice Riders championship. 

His winning ride on Sunday in the Ucanstore.com Men’s Open was arguably his best. 

Jumping the last looking held in third, he brought course specialist Ninth Wave through on the inside to head Captain MC (James King) and Sumkindofking (Edward Walker) under hands and heels on the climb to the post.

 Peter Musgrave’s admirable gelding, trained by Teresa Clark at Aisholt, has now scored at each of the three Bratton Down fixtures this season. 

There was conjecture whether this “triple crown” was a record, but Martin Sweetland, now a steward, pointed out that he had ridden Danny Doolittle to achieve a similar feat 21 years ago.