A plot that was hatched a few weeks ago was pulled off in tremendous style on the last day of our season, leaving Claire Hart 4 points clear of Jane Williams as we head for our final at Cheltenham on May 2nd. We arrived at the course in good spirits after our 3 hour journey, during which it had suddenly dawned that middle-age was upon me - why you ask, because I spotted some old fashioned car sweets on a "buy one get one free" offer and steamed in to buy some!
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| Emily and Alskamatic (with ears pricked) lead the field on the 2nd circuit of the Open Maiden race |
The main event for us is the AGA Ladies Open, however, we were particularly interested in the 3rd race - the Open Maiden, as our good friend Emily MacMahon was in the plate for a spin on Alskamatic. Emily hasn't picked up many rides in our series, which is a real shame, but it was good to see her in action here, and the look on her face as she returned to the paddock told it's own story - see pic below.
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| A delighted Emily MacMahon returns to the paddock following her ride in the Maiden on Alskamatic |
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| Debrief from the owners |
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| A job well done! |
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| Mini weighs out |
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| More lead for Mini |
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| Millsy and her dog |
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| Smile Simon, you're in the frame! |
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| Our eventual winner looking serene in the paddock |
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| In the frame again Simon! |
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| Here come the girls - part 2 |
Seven runners went to post for our race, and all of the money beforehand was for Martin Pitchwood, ridden by Alice Mills, as the locals emptied their pockets and waded in. Power Shared was sent off at a generous 5/2 and Mrs S was once again spotted hoovering up the 3's that was briefly available.
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| Jo Buck on Doof and Claire Hart on Power Shared - note the sky, and the strategically placed AGA flags |
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| Alice "Millsy" Mills on Martin Pichwood - still with strategically placed AGA flags in shot |
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| Millsy leads the way on the first circuit |
Claire rode the perfect waiting race on Power Shared, holding him up before letting him take her into the race 2 from home - my observation that she "had a double handful" was not wrong, however, she had to hold on to him for as long as possible as in her own words "he was never going to win by far". The duo were cheered raucously all the way up the run-in, in particular by Simon Hart, who at one point straddled the fence and started to ride it! He did his best to put Beazo off, but as you can see from the photo below, Beazo was able to "keep calm and carry on".
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| Shout them home Simon! |
Claire was thrilled and her clenched fist salute and roar of delight was just about captured, and as you can see, Millsy wasn't that far behind - one and a half lengths being the official distance.
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| Minny enjoyed that! |
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Mrs S is in there again for the second day running, before
dashing off to collect her winnings which she promptly
invested in a new wine hamper |
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| Cup in hand he patiently waits |
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| A kiss from Mrs Hart |
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| Nice cup Helen! |
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| Quiz question - how many AGA clocks have the Hart family won? |
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| Beazo sorts 'em out! |
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| I'm obviously really funny because Claire is always laughing! |
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| Claire Hart (winner), an AGA man (me), a large AGA clock (prize) and Helen Hart (mum) |
I thoroughly enjoyed the race, and the presentation, where I was ably assisted by Christine Durie from local AGA distributor Spillers of Chard, with camera duties being undertaken by Wayne Perkins. The post race interview went off fairly smoothly considering Alice Mills had threatened to disrupt proceedings, although a clearly excited Claire did play Beazo up just a little bit!
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| "This is my 5th interview of the season and I'm going to play up!" |
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| She means it Beazo! |
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| Derek gives Rupert a mint ... extra strong! |
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| The travelling companion for "Rupert" is a Shetland pony, Derek is in the saddle! |
We were asked to pay a visit to the "Team Hart" lorry and the party had already started when we arrived at the bottom of the lorry park. Win, lose or draw this is a regular occurrence and they certainly know how to enjoy themselves. This is a game of highs and lows and they really do celebrate the highs!
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| The wine and bubbles are flowing at the Hart lorry |
The party was to continue all the way up the M5 ... we know because we passed them, we have also seen a photograph of the empties, there's lots of them!
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| He was going to jump but thought better of it! |
There was just time to catch up with the lovely Jo Buck who is fighting it out with Jacqueline Coward for the national championship, we haven't seen much of her in our races but she is a force to be reckoned with and the battle with her Yorkshire challenger will go right down to the wire.
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| Jo Buck meets Derek and Chris |
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| The top of the table |
