Amateurs to the fore in Foxhunter as big festival highlight looms into shot

Friday's St James's Place Foxhunter Chase (4.10) adds another element to the festival mix of healthy Anglo-Irish competition – the one between licence-holders and trainers of point-to-pointers.

Paul Nicholls, who won last year's race with Pacha Du Polder, runs him again along with three others, of which Virak appears the most likely winner. Many in pointing persist with the view that this race, the peak of the sport, should be for 'amateur' trainers only, but that is not going to happen, and Nicholls' policy of sticking with riders associated with his stable is laudable.

Pacha Du Polder provided one of the stories of the 2016 festival when carrying novice rider Victoria Pendleton to fifth spot, last year he won under Bryony Frost – what a catalyst that proved – and this year he will be ridden by groom Harriet Tucker, 22. Friday's spin will be her second under rules.