A glorious sunny spring day attracted a decent crowd to Larkhill for their closing meeting of the current season. A modest entry meant that there was likely to be small fields and so it proved with a walk over and a void race from the six planned races. Enterprisingly the organisers arranged an impromptu dog show in place of the void race and this was well received. On the racecourse itself it was a day of firsts for all of the winners in different ways and a dramatic finish to the feature race the Mixed Open.

Alice Procter began the day seeking her first ever winner and she had the task of walking over in the Conditions race aboard Golden Poet to achieve this. Alice, 19, has been riding in point to points for a couple of seasons and has been working for trainer and owner of Golden Poet Keiran Burke since September on a full time basis at Whitcombe. She is hoping to get her Category B license which would enable her to ride in Amateur Riders races under rules and Keiran indicated that some of his owners were hoping she would soon achieve the required number of rides as they would like her to ride for them. Alice is the daughter of Doug and Lucy Procter who run the Glanvilles Stud where Honeysuckle was bred.

She rounded off the day by riding the same horse to win the Novice Riders race beating her sole rival Coco Live by a distance. Keiran joked that this was his first training double with a horse he had acquired in 2019 but had not been able to win a race with under Rules. He jumped very well for Alice and had the race in his keeping from a long way from the finish.

The biggest field of the day of six runners took part in the Open Maiden for six year olds and upwards. Spectacular Rival led from the second fence and jumping very boldly he had his rivals in trouble from three fences from home. Owned by Dave Ellis and trained by Heidi Brookshaw at Market Drayton in Shropshire their long journey which started at 7.00am will not have seemed as long on the way home. Bought as a 3 year old store horse he has taken his time to develop but relished the faster going. Sadly his owner was not present to see the victory as he runs the Castle Inn at Bletchley near Market Drayton and being Mother's Day he could not get away. Heidi advised that this was her first winner for two years and she then followed up at Ludlow on Monday when Bletchley Castle in the same ownership won the Hunter Chase.

His rider Daniel Kyne, 23, was riding his first ever winner at Larkhill having ridden a double at Parham the day before. Based in Lambourn but originally from Galway he has been in England for a couple of years and is currently working for Mark Grant. However Heidi was quick to praise his commitment as he comes up to Shropshire once a week to ride work although he had never sat on this gelding who is normally Tommie O'Brien's ride.

The Mixed Open was a match between Igor ridden by Alice Stevens and Story of Friends ridden by George Hiscock. Igor made most of the running with his rival sitting behind until Story of Friends made a mistake at the third last. George battled back and by the last fence had taken the lead but Igor was not to be denied and in a driving finish they flashed past the post together with the judge even with the aid of the iPad unable to split them and declared a dead heat.  Robert Waley- Cohen had been concerned about the going but his gelding seemed to handle the conditions. He added he had never been involved in a dead heat before.

Syd Hosie, the owner of Story of Friends, was recording his first ever winner as an owner/trainer. Based at Holwell near Sherborne he had bought the gelding from Garth and Anne Broom before he ran at Cothelstone where he had finished the runner up behind Rio Quinto ridden by George Hiscock. George thought that he was going to win until the mistake at the third last but he stayed on strongly until joined on the line.

The Restricted race was another match and this proved to be another winner, Ballymac Boy, from Shropshire this time trained by Caroline Robinson and ridden by her daughter Immy. She tracked her rival Captain Mc ridden by George Hiscock for much of the race until taking it up at the final ditch and maintained a two lengths lead at the winning post. Owned by long- time supporter of the stable David Heys, Caroline advised this was her first ever Larkhill winner after trying for a number of years and it was Immy's first winner at the course as well. Fresh from her victory at Overton in Scotland the day before Immy had travelled back home and then made the long trip to Wiltshire to bring up a memorable weekend. She is already looking forward to riding The Dellercheckout at Aintree over the famous fences next week where her mother as Caroline Beasley famously triumphed aboard Eliogarty.