Sunset rises to the occasion

A small animal vet storms to a first win with her £700 purchase, while a former Badminton grassroots winner triumphs with new jockey

- ELLIE HUGHES

THE winner of BE90 section N, Joanne Moses, not only juggles riding with a demanding job as clinical director of a small animal veterinary practice, but she has also woven a gruelling 18 months of cancer treatment into her schedule.

“Last year I needed two separate surgeries for thyroid cancer, plus radiotherapy,” explained the vet, who persuaded her consultant to delay her second surgery until after she had competed at last season's BE90 Scottish Grassroots Championship with her partner of 16 years, Sunset Song (she subsequently finished fifth).

Joanne bought “Oscar” - whose dam was a point-to-point mare and sire a partbred gypsy cob - as a nine-month-old foal: “I bought him to replace a youngster that I'd specially bred to event but lost to grass sickness,” she said. “He's gone on to surpass all my expectations.”