Jack Teal said that he is “getting a great kick out of watching his horses” with his trainer’s hat on instead of his usual role as a jockey, due to the fact he fractured his C3 vertebrae at the beginning of March.
“I got buried at home in the arena off a pony while I was trying to break him in,” said Jack. “I landed flat on my back, heard a big crunch and thought it didn’t sound too good. The fracture is pretty stable as far as those things can be, but I’m not too sure when I’ll be back on a horse.”
But the Bedale Hunt point-to-point meeting at Hornby Castle in Yorkshire on Saturday (9 April) gave Jack something to celebrate as he sent out three winners as a trainer.
One of those came with Jack’s sister Lois aboard, who has taken up pointing this season, and here she clocked her second winner, this time in the ladies’ open aboard the super-consistent Matts Commission (pictured top), who is owned by Rita Williams and Jackie Teal. It was also a great present for Lois, who celebrated her 25th birthday on the same day.
“I asked Lois what she wanted for her birthday and she wasn’t sure, so I told her I’d give her a winner,” explained Jack.
The second of Jack’s treble came with Pillowman with Christy Furness riding in the conditions (level two). This was a first win for Pillowman, who is owned by Virginia Furness, this season.
“It’s great for Christy, who is a friend of mine,” said Jack. “The ground was in Pillowman’s favour as his previous runs have been on a softer surface, which I don’t think he likes, and the blinkers helped him to travel better this time.”
Jack’s third winner was with Desjay, who was ridden by Jack Power to victory in the restricted.
“We ran him the previous week too, and I wasn’t so keen on running him so soon afterwards, but his owner, Steve Knowles has a broken hip and so didn’t want to travel too far to watch his horse run,” explained Jack. “But I gave Desjay a canter on the Friday and he felt good, so we thought we’d give him the chance, and actually, he ran better than he has before.”
John Dawson was also delighted to ride a double on the day, with the first coming aboard Steely Addition in the men’s open, making it four wins from five runs this season for this 10-year-old owned by Mrs JL Buckingham and trained by Chris Dawson.
“It was a straightforward ride for me and we got there comfortably,” said John. “He seems to have enjoyed better ground and is fairly classy.”
Fascinating Rhythm completed John’s double when storming home 17 lengths clear in the maiden for owner/trainer Cherry Coward.
“He’s a big, raw four-year-old, but he won it impressively and I think there’s loads of improvement in him,” said John. “I imagine he will be nice moving forward.”
Fascinating Rhythm and John Dawson
Paddy Barlow and The Whistle Blower won the intermediate comfortably by 18 lengths for trainer Jonathan Barlow and owner Mr J. B. Wallwin.
Read the full point-to-point report from meetings that happened over the weekend in the 14 April issue of Horse & Hound magazine.
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Minimalistic goes all out to win while another horse with ‘legs of glass’ makes a winning return after a two-year absence
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