DISPATCHES FROM THE SOUTH AND WEST MIDLANDS: 18 AND 19 APRIL

With six more fixtures at the weekend, including Chaddesley Corbett in the West Mercian Area and Kingston Blount in the South Midlands, opportunities were again plentiful and participants took full advantage, with wins at all six meetings.

It seems that James King is the headline story most weeks and he took the honours again this time with three wins on Saturday at Worcestershire course Chaddesley Corbett and another treble on Sunday at Kingston Blount in Oxfordshire. Two of his Saturday successes were for Chris Barber – Jack Black in the Restricted and Grace A Vous Enki, fulfilling a lifelong ambition for owners Clive and Joan Hitchings in the Lady Dudley Cup Mens Open. The remarkable 10-year-old was scoring for the 13^th time – 11 of them at Larkhill – from 14 starts in points, and his only defeat was in this race two years ago. King completed his hat-trick on Poliath for Phil Rowley in the Mares Maiden.

Connections of Grace A Vous Enki with the Lady Dudley Cup (Graham Fisher)

At Kingston Blount, King took the Members on Alan Hill’s The Dancing Tree, won the Maiden on the Luca Morgan-trained Prince In The Park, then scored in the Veterans Race on Lavorante. He now stands on 45 wins for the season, eight clear of his nearest pursuer, while Grace A Vous Enki and The Dancing Tree are among the joint-leaders in the national champion horse competition.

James King and the prolific The Dancing Tree (Neale Blackburn)

Barber almost matched the six-timer, having five wins at three meetings over the weekend. He sent Rockatansky to Charm Park, near Scarborough in Yorkshire, to take the latest GB Pointing Bonus Young Horse Maiden in the hands of Ed Doggrell, then had a double at Lower Machen in Wales, with Taktics and Flora Hobbs. The latter was a first win since his comeback from injury for Fred Philipson-Stow.

West Mercian connections took five of the six races at Chaddesley Corbett, Hannah Lewis and Heidi Palin teaming up to win the Members with Malinas Glory, then Tom Lacey’s Herbies Sock taking the Open Maiden for Sean O’Connor. Gina Andrews, another who is enjoying a fabulous season – guaranteed a 12^th female riders championship and leading the trainers title which she is bidding to win for the first time – prevented a West Mercian clean sweep by winning the Ladies Open with Master Templar, scoring for the 15^th time from 21 starts between the flags.

Read Andrew King’s review of the action at Chaddesley Corbett here.

Gina Andrews at her determined best on Master Templar (Graham Fisher)

Andrews went to Lower Machen on Sunday and took the Mixed Open with Fumet D’Oudairies, another prolific pointing winner whose record stands at 11 from 13. Also at the Welsh track, the Jo Priest-trained and Zac Baker ridden Laugusto made a winning debut and Ask Elli, trainer-ridden by Bradley Gibbs, won for the second time this season.

Back at Kingston Blount, the ‘Hands & Heels’ Novice Riders race went to For Rita, owned, trained and ridden by Abi Henry, and Francesca Poste’s Jasmin Des Blins took the Restricted, an 11^th win of the season for Lucas Murphy, who looks nailed-on to be national novice riders champion in his first year.

Russell Smith reports from Kingston Blount here.

A close-up view of Jasmin Des Blins (right) (Graham Fisher) 

Poste had an across the card double on Sunday, winning the Maiden at Cotley in Somerset with Laudable, ridden by Ed Doggrell at a venue over 300 miles distant from the one at which he had won the day before. Other jockeys who enjoyed success at Charm Park were Molly Legg – now joint-top of the female novice standings – on spare ride Diamond Flush, and Sam Scott, who rode African Paridise (yes, the spelling is correct), a first training success for Warwick Ryan-Beswick. Finally, Amber Jackson-Fennell went to Flete Park in Devon on Saturday to win on Dreamaboutit.