It seemed appropriate that Dale Peters should have won the Birketts Mixed Open race on Thunderstruck, owned by The Walpoles and Mary Cherry-Downes, while thunder and lightning crackled around the Garthorpe racecourse and the rain poured down. The winner was given a good run for his money by Timothy Talbot's Jet Of Magic, trained by Bradley Gibbs and Peters was delighted with the horse's progress.

“He's been a different horse this year. It's great for his owners to get a winner, they're great supporters of mine and support us wherever we go so I was really pleased for the horse and them," Dale said.

He quickly went on to score a double in the next, the conditions race for horses from the Midlands and Yorkshire areas, sponsored by W. Spence. This time Dale Peters rode favourite Largy Pearl, the horse he trains for Beryl Close, to a comfortable victory over Glen Cannel (Will Grant), trained by Laura Morgan. Dale said, "He did what he had to but you’ll be seeing a better horse in a more conventional race with more runners and stronger pace. I’ve always liked him but he’s just taken a little while to get him right. We seem to be on the right path, so hopefully it stays that way.”

It was a great shame that only 15 of the 73 entries decided to declare, as the ground had been advertised exactly as it was, good, good to firm in places. The much anticipated rain then started falling after the second race and the ground softened throughout the day.

The second race of the day was the PPORA Conditions race for Novice Riders, generously sponsored by Roythornes, and produced the best finish of the day between the favourite, Premier Fantasy (H. O'Dwyer), trained by Bradley Gibbs, and Shentri, an eight-year-old trained by Kelly Morgan and ridden by Poppy Shaw. Despite losing an iron on the run-in. Shaw managed to hold on to the lead she had held for much of the race on Shentri, under increasing pressure from the horse in second. Steady The Ship (Mrs V. Solitt) was third and Dubai Dandy (Billy Marshall) fourth.

This was a very popular victory for many reasons. The horse is trained ten minutes from Garthorpe in Waltham on the Wolds, and had looked set to win for the first time under this jockey at Higham earlier in the year when Shentri had an unlucky fall. This maiden victory, though, coincided with Poppy's nineteenth birthday, and she later found out that her Grandmother has bought the horse for her as a present.

Poppy Shaw said, “He is my dream horse, and he jumped unbelievably. He gave me an amazing spin and I’m so glad he was the horse that gave me my first winner. He’s been my favourite ever since he set foot on the yard!“

The opening race was a Goffs-sponsored young horse Maiden for four-year-olds which was won by William Thirlby's Colibri Bleu, beating Luna Blue, ridden and trained by Liam Clarkson.

The third race of the day was the restricted but sadly due to the lack of declarations on the day this race was void.

As the ground was softening quite quickly, it was perhaps surprising that the final race of the day, the three mile Tryac-sponsored Maiden, produced one of the fastest times of the day, at 6m 29s. The Gina Andrews trained Pillar Rock (Jack Andrews), evens favourite, jumped very well and came home to a comfortable victory over Tony's Tipple, the only other of four starters to finish. Pillar Rock was previously at Dan Skelton's, but has proved tricky to train, so this was a very pleasing win. 

Point-to-point meetings exist to be fundraisers, so we should be grateful for the number of people who stayed at the course despite the bad weather and enjoyed the racing despite a low number of runners. There was a great atmosphere and I'm told the bar was still serving at 9pm.

The Midlands area now has a brief break before the Pytchley with Woodland meeting at Dingley on Easter Saturday, 19th April. We then return to Garthorpe at the end of April for the Quorn meeting a week later.