The final point-to-point of the Midlands Area season took place at Dingley racecourse, just outside Market Harborough in Leicestershire, on Saturday 13th May and produced doubles for jockey Jack Andrews and trainer Tom Ellis. Dale Peters trains and rides Thunderstruck, who made it two wins from the last three outings as he won the first […]
Pointing to pause again
In the light of the Prime Minister’s Announcement, we of course are calling a pause to the point to point season from today. Whilst I know that many of you would have liked to press on, and indeed the sport remains inherently safe, we cannot claim that we are acting in a vacuum. The national situation is worsening, and that means amongst other things that the availability of medical assets is no longer assured. Even if those could be guaranteed, there is the likelihood of waits at hospitals for injured jockeys, and racing having to be stopped due to lack of ambulances on course.
We also have to take into account the workload put upon the volunteers who run the meetings, the level of which may not be apparent to many of you. We are hugely grateful for their willingness to take on the enormous amount of work and stress that they have gone through to try to put on the meetings so far, and the occasional cancellation has not been due to lack of effort. However, this has reached intolerable levels over the past few weeks, and cannot continue.
Instead, we have decided to go for a clean break with the hope of restarting on weekend February 20/21, based on the government Tier Review on February 10. This will at least allow you to plan with some surety. Please do keep the faith. Whilst there are several dynamics currently working against the country, these will play out, whilst others, such as vaccination programmes and the weather, will move in our favour. As such we believe that we can still have a good season all things being equal. To put things in perspective that will leave 19 racing weekends until the end of the season during which over two thirds of the normal fixture list would normally run.
Rest assured that we are doing everything possible to ensure our sport will be in a great space to get going again in a safe and secure manner, which is acceptable to us all. Please keep checking the website for further updates.
Recent Posts
Fitzwilliam at Dingley 13th May - Preview
2pm Race 1 - PPORA Conditions Race kindly sponsored by Boiler Juice. 13 entered in the first race of the day. Championship chasing Jack Andrews has the choice of 3,whichever he rides will have a big chance. Minella Wizard ran well when second at the Easter meeting here, possibly the race came toosoon after his […]
The Fernie at Dingley 30th May - Report
Dingley’s second meeting of the year was also the Midland Area’s penultimate fixture of the season, the Fernie’s, and brought a good number of runners to the Market Harborough course, where Charles Millington and his team had prepared an excellent racing surface. The feature race of the afternoon was the Mixed Open for the Fernie […]
Fernie at Dingley 30th April - Preview
The penultimate fixture in the Midlands area is the point-to-point hosted by the Fernie at Dingley on Sunday 30th April 2023. The first of six horse races is scheduled for 2pm and of course there will be numerous trade stands to explore, caterers providing food and drink, a licensed bar, fun dog show, bookmakers and […]
The Quorn at Garthorpe - Report
A dry week in the lead up to the Quorn’s point-to-point on Saturday 22nd April produced some excellent racing on soft/good to soft ground at Leicestershire’s home of racing, Garthorpe racecourse. The meeting also broke new ground by hosting a schooling race, organised by Clerk of Course Jim Culloty which provided an opportunity for trainers […]