RYEDALE painter and decorator Clive Milson is also pretty handy in other areas. Not only has he penned poems which have been published in the Gazette & Herald, he has now completed two impressive pencil portraits which are to be displayed in Jack Berry House.

Milson’s drawings are of Jack Berry himself and also the late Lord Oaksey, who did such sterling work on behalf of the Injured Jockeys’ Fund over a number of years and who had Oaksey House – the IJF’s first jockeys’ rehabilitation and fitness centre in Lambourn – named after him.

Milson, 66, said: “I did the one of Lord Oaksey some time ago – it’s won a couple of first prizes at local village shows – and when I showed it to Jack Berry, he liked it a lot. So then I did one of Jack, from photographs, which is how I tend to work, and he liked that too, as did Lisa Hancock (chief executive of the Injured Jockeys’ Fund). I then offered to donate both portraits to Jack Berry House and they were delighted with the gesture, and I am very pleased too. It will be nice to have them displayed there.”

Milson understandably takes great pride and pleasure in his work. “I’m just a ‘hobby artist’, but I’ve been doing it for 20 or 30 years and have always enjoyed it and enjoy the feedback I get from them. I used to do watercolour birds before the pencil portraits and enjoyed that too.”

Former top rider Edward Hide was so impressed by Milson’s portraits of Oaksey and Berry that he commissioned one of himself, which is now complete and is hanging in the Huttons Ambo home of the celebrated Derby-winning jockey.

“Clive is very talented. I liked the ones he did of Lord Oaksey and Jack and I’m very pleased with the one he did of me,” said Hide.

Milson is now awaiting a call from Berry to organise the delivery of his portraits. “It will be nice to see them hanging up in Jack Berry House, and if people are interested in them and enjoy them that will be good,” he said.

 

• BRIAN ELLISON will be keeping a close eye on the weather forecast before making a decision about sending the high-class Definitly Red to next month’s Cheltenham Festival.

The Norton gelding hit the heights at Haydock last Saturday when winning the Grade 2 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle in tough-as-teak style under Richard Johnson, wearing the colours of Yorkshire owner Phil Martin, who now has a powerful team of horses within Ellison’s Spring Cottage yard. The 9-4 shot beat the favourite Fletcher’s Flyer by half-a-length in a battling display.

“He’s a very good horse, and always has been. Steve Gollings, who had him before he came to us, did a brilliant job with him,” said Ellison. “He’s got a couple of options at Cheltenham, but the big thing would be the ground. We’d like to run him, but unless it was soft ground, he wouldn’t go and we’d maybe have to think about Aintree instead.”

Ellison added: “Whatever happens, he’s not going to have more than one or two more races in the season. He’s a chaser in the making and we’re looking forward to him going over fences next season.”

Streets Of Newyork, also trained by Ellison, did his Cheltenham prospects no harm at Musselburgh earlier in the week when running out an impressive winner from the John Quinn-trained El Beau in the handicap hurdle.

Runner-up in the Scottish County Hurdle on the same course on his previous start, this fast-improving gelding scored with plenty in hand on his latest start and is beginning to look a very smart hurdler.

A steep rise in his rating is inevitable for Streets Of Newyork, but it may not stop him from winning again and Ellison has the options of the Imperial Cup at Sandown, the County Hurdle at Cheltenham and indeed the Aintree Festival for him over the next couple of months.

Streets Of Newyork was ridden to victory at Musselburgh by Danny Cook, but the jockey is now serving a ten-day ban, after losing his appeal against the suspension which he received for “not taking all reasonable and permissible measures to obtain the best possible placing” on the Ellison-trained Zaidyn, a notoriously hard puller, on the same course at the beginning of the month.

Cook was deeply disappointed not have the suspension overturned. As for Ellison, he strongly defended his jockey’s riding, saying: “I don’t think he should have been banned. The horse doesn’t help himself, he’s very keen and ran away with a lad at Catterick and ended-up pulling up. He will be ridden exactly the same way (as Cook rode him) the next time he runs.”

 

• LEVITATE, firmly on course for next month’s Betway Lincoln Handicap, which he had won in 2013, has sadly suffered a fatal injury on the Malton gallops.

No sooner had Levitate been highlighted in this column last week, when he was the subject of an encouraging bulletin from his trainer John Quinn, than disaster struck.

The seven-year-old was doing a routine piece of work when he was pulled up lame after three furlongs.

Quinn said: “He fractured a joint in two places and, unfortunately, couldn’t be saved. It was sad to have to put him to sleep.

“He’d been in great order and was aiming for the Lincoln again. He loved Doncaster and he loved some cut in the ground. It’s a great pity.

“Alan McCabe did a great job with him before I got him and he did us proud as well.

“It’s a real shame for his owner, Charles Wentworth, who had some good days with him.”

Levitate, whose Lincoln success two years ago was gained in a triple photo-finish, finished unplaced in the race last year. But he was the winner of seven of his 40 races and accumulated prize money of more than £155,000.

Levitate’s passing comes only a couple of months after Quinn lost his high-class hurdler Cockney Sparrow, winner of last season’s Scottish Champion Hurdle, through colic.

On a happier note, Aurore d’Estruval is reported to be in rude health as she prepares for next month’s Chetlenham Festival where she will be one of the leading contenders in the Grade 1 David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle.

Winner of two of her three starts this season, both in Listed company and a Grade 1 runner-up in the Fighting Fifth Hurdle, the French recruit has developed an impressive profile. “Everything is fine with her,” reports Quinn.

 

• TIM EASTERBY was forced to sweat a little before being able to celebrate his first Flat winner of 2015.

Mappin Time scored at Wolverhampton on Monday, but it was a close-run thing in a race which carried a first prize of more than £28,000.

The sprinter, ridden by Easterby’s former apprentice Andrew Mullen, won in a blanket finish by two necks and two heads.