AGA Championship gets off to a windy start at Cottenham but ends on a warm note thanks to new friends

The opening day of the 2012/13 point-to-point season had arrived so it was time for the talking to stop and the action to begin - Cottenham here we come. An early start was preceded by an AGA tweet or two ... and an early phone call from owner (and PPA board member) Steven Astaire in which the words "wind" and "strong" were mentioned more than once.

We didn't get much of the new AGA gazebo erected and this was all that we dared to put up, otherwise we feared it may have taken off and ended up somewhere in Cambridgeshire! This presented another problem as the lavish AGA spread - courtesy of Mrs S, had to be relocated to one of the old horse boxes, along with the tables and chairs ... not a great first outing for our new set-up.

As this was not only the opening fixture of the season, but also the only surviving race meeting anywhere in Britain, we had a feeling that a lot of attention would be on the start ... so we targeted the starters rostrum for a bit of creative AGA branding.

Everything needed to be tied down today and Ian McBain, manager of our AGA shop in Peterborough, even decided to tie the AGA Total Control van down!

Despite the fact that we were tucked away in a horse box top trainer Fergal O' Brien still managed to sniff out the home made soup.

A small crowd had gathered around the starters rostrum, obviously attracted by the AGA Home Business sign, so just before the starter mounted his rostrum to get the season officially underway a discussion was taking place to decide who would be the first to call the "AGA man".

Novi Sad jumps the first in the PPORA Club Members Conditions Conditions race ... I'm sure we could have squeezed another couple of AGA signs in here!

What do you talk about when you've just had a 40/1 winner? Maybe Mr Richard "Sparky" Bevis and Miss Alexandra Stirling can enlighten us?

Ally only had eyes for the champagne and I have a feeling that it won't be too long before we see her on the presentation podium following an AGA Ladies Open race.

The Andrews sisters will feature prominently in the AGA title race this season and both were here today, although neither had a ride. Both were in good spirits and Bridget was happy to give the boys some tips on puppy training! 

When Mrs S woke up this morning she certainly didn't expect to spend the day in a horse box, although she coped admirably! Ally Stirling, fresh from her win on Corredor Sun, popped in to see whether Fergal O' Brien had left anything worth eating ... although it looks like she has managed to lose the AGA hat that she begged me for at Whitfield last season!

All six of the runners in the first AGA Ladies Open of the season are thundering towards the AGA man on their first circuit, although Rusian Flag looks like he is paying more attention to me than the race!

Sagalyrique won easily for Angela Rucker and we'll hopefully see that pair line up in the final at Stratford in June, but another one to take from the race was Silver Adonis, ridden by Tessa Champion. I think we'll be seeing a lot more of this pair - along with Tessa's mum and dad, Alison and Nick.

Mrs Rucker was off the mark for the season and bagged the first 10 AGA points to take an early lead in the table ... will she still be there on Friday 7th June 2013?

Lots of happy people in the winners enclosure = plenty of photo opportunities, and today was no exception.

We had an early contender for "most people in an AGA prize presentation photo", and the AGA mementoes were very well received, Mr Rucker particularly liked the Claret Cast Iron Coalbrookdale pot.

Derek and Chris were quite keen to show off the new AGA winning posts and I couldn't resist a pic for the blog!

Pink AGA polo shirts were very popular with our lady riders last season and I'm expecting demand to be high this time around. Tessa Champion and Clare Twemlow were first in the queue, although this was not the last time I would see Tessa today.

They were soon followed by the winner of our "best novice in AGA races" award from last season, the very talented Frankie Hickman, who had earlier enjoyed a nice spin on Betavix.

The post race interview with Beazo will again be a feature of the AGA series and Angela was the first willing victim of the new season .. 5 wins = 50 points and 5 interviews!

You can see this video - and every other video, on our dedicated You Tube channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMDTZ1h5IKs&feature=plcp and I'm sure that there will be a few classics as the season progresses.

Beazo has been honing his interview technique during the summer months and Angela seemed suitably impressed.

With the interview complete it was time for the AGA man to head for the lorry park to see whether anyone wanted to buy a new AGA.

You meet some nice people in the lorry park when you go pointing and today was no exception. I met up with the connections of Silver Adonis and they were so delighted with his 3rd place in the AGA race that they agreed to model the new pink AGA polo shirt for me.

The previous weekend I had watched Monbeg Dude win a thrilling race at Cheltenham for trainer Michael Scudamore (I backed Bradley), and here I was one week later having a slice of cake and talking about AGA with Michael and his mum Maz ... what a great sport this is!

Tessa Champion - who rode Silver Adonis, Maz Scudamore (trainer), and Lesley Sluman (owner) were our "pretty pink pointers" (thank you Marie Bridgwater), and the Scudamore lorry became an early contender for the "most photographed horse box" award!

The Champion family puppy was very entertaining and Tessa Champion's mum and dad, Alison and Nick, were also great fun, in fact it was Tessa's mum Alison who took the 'pink' photos! 

It was time for me to kick on so I headed back to the car with a spring in my step, and after the warm welcome I received today I hope to meet up with the Silver Adonis team again soon ... possibly when Maz decides to trade in her old white AGA!  

 

I'd like to say a massive thank you to April and the team at Cottenham from AGA, for putting on a tremendous days racing, and also for the very warm welcome, we thoroughly enjoyed it ... well done to all concerned!