Over the stable door: Time for a nice Guy to win a deserved championship

The South Durham is always ultra-competitive with those in contention fighting tooth and nail to win the Championship.

This season may see five-time “bridesmaid” Guy Brewer reap his long-awaited reward and lift the Men’s title. Amazingly, it would be Guy’s first time as Yorkshire Champion, despite having ridden 120 winners.

The 37-year-old, who has a degree in engineering, has sparred against top opponents during the last decade, having lost out to the likes of Oliver and Tom Greenall, Chris Dawson and Ben Woodhouse, purely by minor placings.

His nearest rival at present is Sheriff Hutton-based Mark Walford, who is 19 points behind (five wins).

Ever since Mark borrowed Guy’s wrist-bands, six weeks ago, the Sheriff Hutton jockey cannot stop riding winners – 12 in the last six weeks.

“He won’t give me them back now,” laughed Guy.

Our leading jockey fancies his chances on the maiden Alfasion today, with Knoxhill Archie in the Open.

Guy is a brilliant tactician to watch in a race and always uses his brain (fortunate to have one in full working order after 14 years of race riding). There would be no more worthy winner in the weighing room but he won’t rest on his laurels. Having been in this situation before, Guy won’t celebrate until the final weigh-in. We may all breathe a sigh of relief then – his long wait will be over.

A rare window of opportunity allowed us time to enjoy Felix’s fancy-dress prize last week, four free tickets to Lightwater Valley near Ripon. Felix and his friends had a great time. Nothing was fast enough, high enough or wet enough for my son who, I suspect, may turn out to be as adrenaline fuelled as his mother.

Ex- amateur Alison Bartle also joined us in the fun with her two children, having just returned from a trip to Cheltenham races.

While enjoying an evening in Cheltenham, the girls had met some fellow race-goers. One happened to be a director of Aga, and the man responsible for the company’s sizeable sponsorship deal. He and his friends were searching for a suitable drinking establishment.

Having met the Yorkshire troupe, they got no further and spent the rest of the evening socialising together.

“Did you show him how well behaved we pointing people are?” I asked dubiously.

“Of course we did,” she answered.

“Please tell me he is happy to sponsor pointing after that, Ali? I mean – you didn’t scare him off, did you?” I asked, knowing what happens when she lets her hair down.

“Oh, no,” she replied gleefully. “We are going to stay at his house next month. He rang up today and is coming racing in Yorkshire from now on. He has never had so much fun.”

What a girl. That’s one way to keep our sponsors happy.