Hunting for winners

Can you hunt hounds and race-ride? How compatible are the two sports – and can you fit both in?

- Tessa Waugh

HUNTING and racing. The two sports have plenty in common. No surprises then, that people fond of the first have enjoyed having a go at the latter over the years. If you like testing yourself across country, it makes sense that you will enjoy testing your mettle on the racecourse.

It is also not unheard of for jockeys to become huntsmen.

Guy Landau hunted the West Somerset Vale and the Meynell and South Staffs among other packs, having completed a successful career as a jump jockey. Another former jockey, Sam Jones, currently hunts the Cottesmore. Ryan Mania, who made the days of Scottish racing fans when he won the Grand National in 2013 on Auroras Encore, went on to hunt the Berwickshire before returning to the fray as a jockey more recently.

Amateur jockeys who have also devoted their lives to hunting have formed an illustrious crew over the years.

Former masters of foxhounds such as Robin Gundry, Alan Hill, Ian McKie, Peter Daresbury, Mike Felton and Rupert Nuttall enjoyed significant success in points-to-points, and some under Rules.

In his autobiography, The Way It Was, the late Ian Farquhar attributes his best fun point-to-pointing to a mare that belonged to David Somerset (later the 11th Duke of Beaufort) with the name of Cuddle Up. He recalls riding her eight or nine times, was never out of the frame, finally scoring a win at the Berkeley. All of this took place before he began his life as a huntsman, which many will agree is incompatible with race-riding.

Adrian Dangar came to this conclusion early on in his career. It was 1987 when he achieved what he describes as “the ambition of my dreams” and became a master of foxhounds. As master of the Spooners and West Dartmoor he was living at the kennels and looking after the hounds single-handedly.