Fine weather brought a bumper Bank Holiday weekend crowd to Garthorpe for the Quorn's fixture, which saw a double for trainer David Kemp among the results of six races. The ground at Garthorpe was officially good and praised by jockeys throughout the fixture, a testament to the hard work put in by Clerk of the Course Brian Crawford and his irrigation team during the run up.

Photos of the meeting are now available from point-to-point-racing/2022/quorn-garthorpe-30apr22" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Nico Morgan.

The opener was an interesting conditions race which saw much of the running made by The Unmentionable, ridden and trained by Dale Peters for Freda and Neville Clark. Tracking this combination was Meisha Micklewright riding John Chatfeild-Roberts' Santon for Kelly Morgan, fresh from two recent wins. As the leaders turned into the final straight, though, it was Largy Mountain, the mount of James King, who finished strongly, crossing the line with Peters and The Unmentionable. This season we have been lucky to have been able to film all Midlands area finishes in slow motion from the Judge's position and after close examination of that footage the Judge declared the result as a dead heat.

Dale Peters) and LARGY MOUNTAIN (James King) create a dead heat in the first" class="wp-image-22577"/>

After all that excitement it was unfortunate that there was only a single declaration for the Open race which followed, so a walkover was carried out by Badbad Leroy Brown, under Zac Baker, for Lucy Wiles and they were presented with the historic Quorn Gold Cup. Conditions races seem to be attracting the entries from Open horses, to the detriment of the feature races on fixture cards, something which will have to be worked on for next year's calendar.

The Restricted race saw the first of trainer David Kemp's two wins for the afternoon, as Alex Chadwick steered The Oak Partnership's Ballinagore to victory over Outlaw Dream (Ben Bromley) and Karismatic (Max Chenery). This was the second win in April for the diminutive Milan seven-year-old who will now be given a rest before returning next season.

Kemp followed this up with a second training success as Rupert Stearn rode Clara Sorrento to win the Conditions race, next on the card. The winner was tracked by Gina Andrews on Killinkere throughout the race and many of the spectators may have expected her to move past in the latter stages, but the French-bred eleven-year-old grey was impressive as he ran out well to win.

The Maiden race was the penultimate contest on the card but produced perhaps the most impressive performance of the day. This time it was John Dawson on board ChoosetheNews who accompanied favourite Doctor Tom (Tom Chatfeild-Roberts) at the head of the field of twelve runners for much of the race, but proved too strong for anyone in the final stages, pulling away to win easily in the end for owner and trainer Jack Teal.

Finally, the conditions race for Lady jockeys and horses aged seven years and over saw a contest between two horses previously in training with Dan Skelton in the form of Longhouse Sale and No Hassle Hoff. The former, a winner over two and a half miles at Kimble a fortnight ago, had Gina Andrews in the saddle for Father Simon, but even that combination wasn't enough to catch No Hassle Hoff (K. Gowing), who backed up their Ladies Open win in March at Penshurst with a good win here for Ben and Edward Turner.

The season continues apace in the Midlands area with our next meeting which is hosted by the Fernie at Dingley next Sunday, 8th May, and incorporates the Midlands Area feature race for the season, the Fernie Four-Miler. There are e-tickets available for this fixture, or you can pay on the gate as usual. We look forward to your company there.