Tales From the Heath: Racing and Hunting Meet at Tatts

RACING AND HUNTING MEET AT TATTS 
With more than £260 million having been traded on bloodstock at Tattersalls in 2013, there’s no denying that the historic firm of auctioneers is a significant business in the small town of Newmarket, attracting as it does investors in horse racing from all over the world. 
Its global outlook doesn’t prevent the company from taking a great interest on the domestic front, however, and not only has Tattersalls been a major supporter of the Save Historic Newmarket campaign and the instigation of the Newmarket Horsemen’s Group–it also plays host to one of the most fun social occasions of the year in the town. 
Every February, the local Thurlow Hunt meets at Park Paddocks which, for an hour or so prior to the hounds moving off with the mounted supporters in their wake, is almost unrecognizable as the venue which routinely stables horses possessing some of the world’s finest bloodlines. In place of the Thoroughbreds come hunters of all shapes and sizes, with the odd retired racehorse among them, not to mention dozens of woolly ponies bearing children as young as two. 
A feature of this particular meet, which was this year celebrating its 10th anniversary and has raised plenty of money for different charities in that time, is the number of racing people who attend, either on foot or mounted. One of those was Rabbah Bloodstock director Jono Mills, who arrived aboard his 11-year-old retired racehorse named The Deerhopper. 
“I hunt with various packs, but it’s really nice to be able to come to a meet in your home town with so many racing people here and to support a really good cause,” said Mills, whose hunter also doubles as a hack for local trainer Hugo Palmer. 
Former European Breeders’ Fund (EBF) chief executive Sam Sheppard, a stalwart of the Thurlow Hunt with his wife Jane, added: “It was wonderful to see so many people at Tattersalls and we raised a substantial amount for the East Anglian Air Ambulance, which is of course a very important charity for the local racing community if riders are injured on the Heath. Last year the proceeds went to Racing Welfare, so we like to do our bit to help the racing industry.” 
Of the current EBF team, Kerry Murphy and Amy Bennett were both out in support, as was the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association’s Pauline Stoddart with her daughter and two granddaughters, one of whom was riding sidesaddle. The local training ranks were represented by Paul d’Arcy, Hugo Palmer, Hanako Varian, Di Haine, and Gay and Jackie Jarvis, with the ‘dad of the day’ award going to Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby, who had flown home from Dubai for the weekend to attend the meet with his wife Aisling and their 2-year-old daughters Emily and Erin. The twins shared the riding duties on Harvey, but with another baby on the way next month, the Applebys may have to think about extending their string of ponies in the near future. 
Three of Newmarket Equine Hospital’s racing vets– David Dugdale, James Crowhurst and Jeremy Allen– were all on horseback for the day, but had to jostle for position with flat jockey Jimmy Quinn, who used his race-riding experience to be to the fore of the 81 mounted followers as the hounds set off from Tattersalls and along part of Newmarket High Street before reaching the Heath. 
Of course the link between hunting and racing–jump racing at least–is firmly entrenched in Britain and Ireland. Steeplechasing and point-to-pointing (amateur jump racing) both take their name from the day back in 1752 when Edmund Blake and Cornelius O’Callaghan, both hunting men, raced each other for 4 1/2 miles across the Irish countryside from Buttevant Church to Doneraile Church, keeping to their course by ensuring that the steeple of Doneraile church was in sight. From that first energetic charge across hedges and ditches has emerged a sport which next month will see more than 200,000 people descend on the Cheltenham Festival for four days of the best jumping action anywhere in the world. Though foxhunting was abolished nine years ago, followers of almost 200 packs in Britain still gather in their droves from October to March to hunt legally, following a pre-determined trail without chasing any foxes. 
Newmarket, and indeed Tattersalls, is more readily associated with flat racing, but there are plenty in the town who enjoy National Hunt racing too, including Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony. A master of the Louth Foxhounds in his native Ireland, Mahony, who also breeds and judges show hunters, would normally be seen with a four-legged friend at the meet, but this year was clutching a bottle of port and topping up his guests’ glasses before heading to Twickenham for another important Anglo-Irish sporting clash in the Six Nations rugby tournament. 
Mahony said: “There always used to be a meet at Tattersalls so it was nice to continue the tradition when we started this up again in February 2005, when the Hunting Act came into force. On that day every hunt in the country staged a meet and we had the second biggest attendance figure. It’s always good to see such strong support from the racing crowd.” 
Tales of the Heath is a twice-monthly installment by Newmarket-based writer Emma Berry. Berry lives in one 
of Newmarket’s oldest yards, Beverley House Stables, former home to the 1903 Triple Crown winner Rock Sand and now to the small string of flat and jumps horses trained by her husband, John. She accompanies the yard’s first lot most mornings on her 11-year-old retired racehorse, Pantomime Prince.