REVIEW
TORRINGTON FARMERS
UMBERLEIGH
Saturday 17th June 2006
by Lucy Johnson
RICHARD Woollacott has been crowned the
Devon and Cornwall area point-to-point champion after a nail biting
finish which wasn’t concluded until the final race at the
Torrington Farmers point-to-point in Saturday.
Woollacott had been neck and neck with Neil
Harris and the pair went into the final meeting of the season on
level points. After Harris won the restricted, the second race of
the day, it looked like victory was assured.
Harris had picked up the ride on Janet
Perry’s Sanderstead who is trained at Bridgwater by James
Young. Mrs Perry’s mother is Phyllis Wickett whose Soldier of
Rome won the area’s leading novice title after being steered
to three wins and two seconds by Harris.
Woollacott then finished third on
Eric’s Way in the men’s, won by Itzacliche with Paul
Mason on board.
It looked like Harris had clinched the title
by three points, but a spare for Woollacott in the concluding open
maiden race on World Famous, an 11-year-old trained in
Pembrokeshire, meant he pegged back the lead in the final strides
of the season and won by a solitary point.
Harris, ended the season riding 15 winners,
and Woollacott rode 14 in the area.
However, in the Devon and Cornwall area the
champion is decided on points and Woollacott was awarded the
championship in glorious sunshine at the north Devon track.
Tiverton farrier Rodney Grant saddled a
double at the meeting. Harnage gave Caroline Farrant a belated
first win of the season when he finished alone in the confined
hunts race. Stablemate Spinning Mate followed up in the
intermediate for Mervyn Woodward who was recording his third
success of the campaign. The area’s champion novice rider
Alice Mills finished third on the Heard’s Coffee Morning.
The area’s champions will be
celebrating their successes at the annual dinner and dance and
award ceremony held at The Holiday Inn, Plymouth on Friday, July 7.
Tickets can be obtained from Gordon Chambers on 01364 642755.
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