Catchamat to grab Silver at Friars Haugh

The Northumberland-based Walton family seems to have a stranglehold on Sunday’s Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association point-to-point (2.30pm) for fillies and mares at Friars Haugh near Kelso.

Jimmy Walton, chairman of Hexham Mart, which recently purchased Hexham racecourse, was a leading amateur rider who now trains and breeds thoroughbreds alongside his farming interests. In home-bred Catchamat (Overbury) he has a fine chance of taking the TBA prize, and he has back-up in the shape of Strategic Island (Strategic Prince).

The last-named, a five-year-old, won her maiden recently and seems more likely to line up in the restricted race on the same card, while Catchamat has already pocketed maiden and restricted wins this season and was going well when falling three from home on her latest start.

She can put that behind her and provide Walton’s step-daugher, Catherine, with another win.

Top-rated Barachois Silver (Silver Patriarch) remains a consistent performer at the age of 12, and was third recently in a Carlisle hunter’s chase, but she shoulders a 7lb penalty for a Perth hunters’ chase victory.

Sunday’s race is the eighth in a series of 12 TBA-sponsored point-to-points for fillies and mares. Racing at Friars Haugh starts at 1pm, and the course is situated half a mile from the town centre of Kelso. The postcode is TD5 8LS.