F EATURE POINT-TO-POINTING
the biggest stage of them all in the St James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase at The Festival in March. He smiles: “Winning the Hunters’ Chase at The Festival was something else. The horse rocked up to me ten months before. The owner contacted me and said, ‘Can you train and ride the horse?’ So I said yes, not knowing anything about him. It was only when he ran in his first point-to-point when I rode him and he won by 20 lengths hard-held that I quietly thought he was OK! “Lorcan Williams came through pony racing and then point-to-point ranks. I’ve worked with him closely over the past few years. In my head, there was never an option to let anyone else ride Porlock Bay when amateurs were told they couldn’t ride at Cheltenham this year. I thought if he ran well, he would be placed, but when they turned for home and Lorcan was still sat up in the irons, I thought, ‘Hopefully, we are third at least,’ but he kept pulling it out. It was an unbelievable experience. The emotion that went through my body is hard to describe.” So, while the links between the Cheltenham Festival and point-to-point racing might not be immediately apparent, you don’t have to scratch very far beneath the surface to find the two are actually inextricably linked.
I see it as the way it needs to go. It’s nice to give those older horses a chance and that is happening on quite a big scale, but to back it all up with four-year-olds coming through and getting traded is great.” Biddick is also pleased to see a newwave of owners getting involved in the sport and adds: “In the past three or four years, what I describe as ‘my generation’ has started to come through in a massive way. We are approaching a different type of owner, as opposed to the traditional point-to-point owner who might be a big landowner or businessman. We are looking at a different type of audience. Fresh faces and fresh money coming into the game with new ideas.” Point-to-point racing was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic and Biddick believes the reopening of the sport earlier this year has been crucial to its future. He explains: “The year before last was cut off early. That was our first lockdown and everyone was worried and scared. In the second and third lockdowns, everyone came to terms with it a bit more. I think we are very fortunate that we managed to get ten weeks at the end of the last point-to-point season. It means everyone can go into the 2021-22 season in good spirits.” Whatever Biddick goes on to achieve for the rest of 2021, it will be hard to top Porlock Bay’s victory on
“To get more horses, trainers and jockeys into National Hunt racing, you need to support the very basics of point-to-points”
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