PHIL ROWLEY and Alex Edwards were in unbeatable form at the Wheatland Point-to-Point held at Chaddesley Corbett at the weekend.
Bridgnorth trainer Rowley taking four horses to the meeting on Saturday and won with all of them.
To crown a wonderful weekend Rowley and Edwards had taken the Timico Mixed Open Gold Cup at Cheltenham 24 hours earlier.
The highlight of the meeting was One More Tune’s success in the Mixed Open.
Arthurs Secret and One More Tune blasted away from their rivals at the start and the other two competitors had great difficulty maintaining contact during the first half of the race.
The leading pair continued to match one another’s exploits going stride for stride as the other two runners had their private battle for third place.
Arthurs Secret seemed better suited by the strong pace as his jumping looked more polished than his rival, but Alex Edwards continued with the forcing tactics and One More Tune soon got back onto the leaders quarters.
After such a frenetic pace something had to give and approaching the third from home a small gap appeared and One More Tune went clear as Arthurs Secret’s resistance was broken.
The leader kept up his relentless gallop whereas the runner up was out on his feet and One More Tune was passing the post before his rivals had clambered over the last.
The day had started well for Rowley when Article Fifty took the two-and-a-half mile Maiden.
The four runners looked to be sizing one another up during the first half of this contest which meant the race developed into a sprint after they had jumped the third from home.
Dusty Pearl and Article Fifty began their battle for supremacy at this point, with the latter holding a slender advantage over his rival at the penultimate.
Dusty Pearl fought his way back into contention approaching the last where Article Fifty was foot perfect while the runner up blundered away his chance and lost two lengths which he was unable to recover.
Temple Grandin looked a class above his rivals in the Conditions race and that statement proved correct after he became Rowley and Edwards’s third winner of the afternoon.
The favourite took up the running at the start of the second circuit and with his rivals falling by the wayside only Butney Rock was left to offer any sort of resistance in the closing stages.
However, his effort petered out half a mile from home and Temple Grandin strode clear of the opposition over the final two fences.
Serosevsky had finished runner up on his racecourse debut in mid-April and put that experience to good use in the concluding Maiden.
The lead changed hands several times until a breakaway group formed with half a mile to run where Delkantra, Serosevsky and Wild Ginger were all in contention, before Delkantra challenged wilted on the home turn.
Alex Edwards was sitting motionless at the 17th, whereas Charlie Davies was hard at work on Wild Ginger but to his partner’s credit they were back on equal terms approaching the last but had no answer when Serosevsky sprinted clear on the flat.
The points that Rowley and Edwards accrued at this meeting means they both have one hand on their respective West Midland Area Championships.
The two remaining races went to Welsh trainer runners with David Braces Dunraven Doc proving too strong for his rivals in the closing stages of the Restricted, while the Novice Riders went to James Bowen.
