YORKSHIRE AREA POINT TO POINT CLUB AT SHERIFF HUTTON JANUARY 18TH 2026
REVIEW
High quality performances by some very classy horses lit up a damp and grey Sheriff Hutton where the Yorkshire Area season opened last Sunday after a week's delay due to the wintery weather. Run once again in aid of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, to whom a cheque was presented by the organisers during racing for £13917.00, the total now raised and donated to them by the YAPPC has now passed the quarter of a million pounds mark.
The star performer on the card beforehand looked to be Barton Snow in the Labiana Life Sciences Ladies Open and those who took the short odds would never have a moment's worry. Get With It and Pippa Brown made the running but when Amber Jackson Fennell sent the favourite on three out the race was soon over and he cruised home a very easy thirty lengths clear in the colours of the MMI Partnership with the ultra game Ballydonagh Boy and Ellie Callwood snatching second on the line. Barton Snow's ebullient trainer Joe O'Shea came straight to the point when asked about the performance afterwards “Simple!” he exclaimed “you've just seen this year's Aintree Foxhunters' winner!” and having saddled the winner of the race in two of the last five renewals, he certainly knows what it takes. “ He hated the ground today but he got away with it against this opposition. His next outing will be at Hereford and I may also run him in my favourite race the Walrus at Haydock, but only if the going is good.”
Many shrewd observers thought they had seen another star in the making when Byorderofthecourt beat some useful rivals in the KCM Waste Management Restricted. Trained and ridden by Dale Peters from Sawtry in Cambridgeshire for owners the Clark and Ratcliffe families the winner tracked the leaders and then took over from Artiste d'Ainay and Ellie Callwood three out before coming home eight lengths clear to win in a canter with the promising Hugo Moss running on to snatch second under John Dawson. Dale was continuing a memorable weekend having completed a training and riding treble at Revesby Park the day before. “It's a bit of a dream!” he said afterwards. “After he won his maiden for me at Mollington in 2022 he was sold to Paul Nicholls for £120,000. He only had one run for Paul and went wrong so he came back to me two years ago to the day. He's a machine! He must be to win like that on that ground after two years off. I don't think I have ever sat on one better. Obviously future plans depend on him staying sound but I won't be afraid to be bold with him if he does.”
Another who made a triumphant return from a long absence was Fumet d'Oudairies who beat the day's biggest field of fourteen in the opening Racing TV Five Year Old And Over Conditions (Level2). Having his first run since September 2024, the winner took it up approaching the last under multiple champion lady rider Gina Andrews before battling on to hold off the staying on Yippee Ki Yay and Milo Herbert by a length and in doing so taking his winning record to twelve wins from fifteen outings in points and hunter chases. Speaking afterwards, Gina, who also trains the winner for the D'oudes Partnership said “He's an amazing little horse. He's always been really classy but you always worry when they get a bit older whether they lose it but not him.”
The locals didn't let the travellers have it all their own way and there were two wins for proper family horses from Yorkshire. The first of these came in the Labiana Life Sciences Mens Open when the Furness family's Camdonian repeated his win in the same race twelve months ago and took his record to nine wins from thirteen starts in points. Having been outpaced for part of the race he battled his way back into contention on the home straight. After the Monmouthshire raider Grandads Cottage parted company with Milo Herbert when challenging two out Camdonian then took it up from long time leader Isocrate and William Brown at the last and powered up the hill to win by nine lengths. “He's been at home until last week” said the delighted winning jockey Christy Furness. “Mum (Grania Furness in whose colours Camdonian runs) has done everything with him at home to get him ready. She's done an amazing job. It was a hot race but he just flew. He's a proper winter ground horse.”
The second Yorkshire winner came in the Resdev Maiden when Sports Magic gave 23 year old George Atkinson from near Northallerton his first ever success as jockey and trainer. Having always been handy throughout he challenged the front running Tiger Talk and Ellie Callwood after the second last before running on really well to draw eighteen lengths clear. “I had a second with Driveondonn at Garthorpe earlier in the season” said George afterwards. “ but that's my first winner. He didn't like the ground today. We bought him from down South where he had been placed a couple of times last season. We thought he was good but not quite that good!” As well as looking after his own pointers. George also rides out once a week for Fiona Needham. The Atkinson family's black and white stripes with blue sleeves colours are no stranger to the winners enclosure with dad Mark and uncle Peter having had plenty of success over over a long period of years.
The day concluded with the Tattersalls Cheltenham GB Pointing Bonus Young Horse Maiden over the shorter two miles four furlongs where all eyes were looking out for potential stars of the future. Gina Andrews' Warwickshire yard is a leading exponent of producing first time out maiden winners and the betting market made her Slay Girl the favourite however Joe Hill's Barito, owned by the Woodway Partnership, came here with the benefit of the experience of a previous outing when a really good third in a similar race at Chaddesley Corbett. That stood him in good stead as he put up a professional display when making most of the running before quickening away on the run in. Slay Girl mounted a determined challenge but Barito came home a comfortable three lengths clear and in doing so gave pilot Dale Peters a double on the day and a fifth winner of the weekend. Having made the long journey north from Oxfordshire to make his first visit to Sheriff Hutton a winning one the delighted trainer Joe Hill commented “We came here specifically for this qualifier and we will be looking to sell him now through the Tattersalls sale. It was disappointing he got beat first time out but things just didn't pan out for him but we think the world of him. There's plenty of improvement to come. We bought him as a two year old in France as we had his brother who also won for us.”
The next meeting in the Yorkshire season is at Askham Bryan College near York on Saturday 31st January with the first race at 1pm. Admission is £15 per person with under 16s free and is cash only.
Mark Elliott
That helicopter funding is an absolute belting effort - well done all