Rising star Matt Hampton making hay with his team of hunters

A change this season to the championship for the leading hunter chase trainer restricts the competition to unlicensed point-to-point handlers.

I cannot believe any licence-holder would begrudge this change, but even without it, the leader would be Matt Hampton, who has saddled three hunter chase winners. He and his wife Fliss have created a breaking and pre-training complex from nothing on her parents' farm near Bath in Somerset, pouring every penny of profit into equipment, ranging from stables to gallops and grass-cutters, while accepting that for now their home is of the mobile variety.

Hampton heads the hunter chase title thanks to seven-year-olds Wagner and Twig, who were bought by Aaron and Georgia Morgan to give their son Beau, 17, rides in races.