THE Middleton held its annual point-to-point meeting at Sheriff Hutton last weekend, courtesy of land owner and local trainer Mick Easterby, who was also celebrating his birthday.

This popular meeting attracted runners from far and wide, and is home to Yorkshire’s highly prestigious Grimthorpe Gold Cup.

This was the feature race on the card, and a strong field turned up on the day with top performers such as Young Hurricane, One Conemara, Foxrock and last year’s Heart Of All England winner Streets Of Milan.

However, it would be the southern raider Ballyrath who would take the honours for rider Huw Edwards and trainer Heidi Brookshaw, with second place taken by Foxrock.

Elsewhere on the race card, Will Milburn was again in form, recording a training and riding double. His first success came in the opening Hunt Members’ race aboard the 11-year-old Six-A-Side, who was recording his 12th career success.

The Open Maiden was divided on the day and would give Will his second winner of the day in division one, courtesy of the debutante Chanting Hill.

Division two of the Open Maiden went to Dale Peters with his consistent Tom Tom Turnaround, and Dale got a second winner with Bask In The Glory in the closing 2m 4f Maiden.

The hotly-contested Red Mills Intermediate race saw numerous top class progressive horses take part but it would be the recent Corbridge winner Buck Dancing and Jess Bedi who would storm through to cause an upset and win at odds of 12-1.

The Restricted race saw a win from Hafajay ridden by Jack Jordan, while the Riders’ Conditions race nearly saw odds-on favourite Path To Freedom rally strongly towards the line to win under John Dawson.