RACING at Andoversford may not have been of the highest quality and the number of runners was disappointing, but there were exciting finishes.

The club maiden race at the Cotswold Vale Farmers point-to-point provided a happy outcome for Stow-on-the-Wold owner Tash Seely’s Grand Silence.

Big Night Out headed Grand Silence at the bottom of the hill and, approaching the final bend, James Martin’s mount looked to have secured the win.

But 16-year-old jockey Jordan Nailor gradually reduced the deficit with the two horses locked together at the finish.

Big Night Out was ridden into the winning enclosure but there were loud cheers when Grand Silence was revealed as the victor by a neck.

The 12-year-old failed to triumph in his last 24 outings and Seely, a vet at the Bourton Vale Equine Clinic, retired the gallant old warrior afterwards.

Nailor is among the promising young riders making their mark in point-to-point.

From Moreton-in-Marsh, he works for Charlie Longsdon at Chipping Norton.

RESULTS

Members: 1 Working Title (J Drinkwater, 2-7 fav), 2 Noble Ben, 3 Bowdens Lane. Three ran.

Club maiden: 1 Grand Silence (J Nailor, 3-1), 2 Big Night Out, 3 Cocoa Minnie. Four ran.

PPORA club members: 1 The Rubber Man (Miss A Broome, evens fav), 2 Ballygalley Bob, 3 Mnason. Three ran.

Ladies’ open: 1 Chestnut Annie (Miss E Moseley, evens fav), 2 Tony Dinozzo, 3 Light Touch. Four ran.

Men’s open: 1 Stonemadforspeed (H Teal, 5-2), 2 Mobaasher. Two ran.

Restricted: 1 Annie Confidential (Miss A Broome, evens fav). Two ran.

WMAC conditions: 1 Carbon Emission (Miss A Broome, 6-4 fav), 2 Milled, 3 Gontdevon. Three ran.

Meanwhile, retiring jockey Tony McCoy produced an enterprising ride to score on the Jonjo O’Neill-trained Capard King (11-2) in the Abbott Risk Consulting Novices’ Handicap Hurdle at Ayr.

Conditional jockey Ryan Hatch, attached to the yard of Naunton’s Nigel Twiston-Davies, broke his wrist and his collar bone in a fall at the same meeting on Astracad.

There was a Bangor winner for O’Neill in Gray Hession (17-2).