Glamorgan
Ystradowen
Saturday 24th March 2012
by Brian Lee
The riding honours at the Glamorgan Hunt Point-To-Point at Ystradowen, near
Cowbridge, where thousands of racegoers enjoyed the hazy sunshine went to
Nick Williams the younger brother of sidelined National Hunt jockey Christian.
Laidback Nick's first visit to the winner's enclosure came after he won the
first division of the split four,five,six and seven-year-olds confined maiden race
on Keith Pritchard's five-year-old homebred brown gelding Prince Eleanor who
took it up four fences from the finish to win by six lengths from the odds-on favourite
Rappel D'Estruval (Matthew Barber).
John Mathias was leading the field aboard Coosan Lad which came a cropper at the second open ditch and the reigning Welsh champion sustained head and face soft
tissue injuries which put him out of action for the rest of the afternoon. Alan Johns
who finished fourth on Rule The Roost was fined £40 for not weighing-in.
Nick's next two wins were in the mixed open on Misamom and the restricted on
Towering Run and both came courtesy of the injured Mathias.
Misamom took over the lead from the odds-on favourite The Snail with three to jump - The Snail then fell at the penultimate fence - to win by a distance from Amazing Request (Byron Moorcraft) and Towering Run won by 15 lengths from Son Of Swallow (Evan David).
Dave Worgan's Augustus Gibbons, a six-year-old bay gelding by Oscar, which had
lost its maiden tag at the recent Curre & Llangibby meeting, won the opening
members' race under Bradley Gibbs and will now go for the Dunraven Bowl at
Chepstow on April 27th and the second division of the four,five,six and seven year
olds maiden went to Eric Clough's Kingspark Boy who came home a distance ahead
of Wiston Dreamer after five of the ten runners were carried out at the 15th obstacle
by one of the hunt's horses which had apparently unshipped its rider during the
running of the race. Kingspark Boy was ridden by Wayne Maskill who said he
had plenty of horse under him at the time of the incident.
Matthew Barber won the eight-year-old and over Glamorgan Hunt Club Members
Conditions Race on Nina Phillips's Midnight Diamond who was prominent throughout
and who went on to score by eight lengths from Sheer Brilliance (Nick Williams) who
is trained by Matthew's older brother Marc.
The closest finish of the day came in the eight-year-old and over maiden when
Carnmore Star, partnered by Tom David, got home by half-a-length from Great
Moss (Matthew Barber) with QOK (Josh Harris) a further half-a-length away in third
place.
