Tier 4 tears of frustration as controls slam door on pointing plans

A couple of hours before the door slammed on his aspirations once again, trainer Charlie Poste said: "There are bigger problems in the world, but we are desperate to get racing again."

Poste, who operates a point-to-point yard in Warwickshire with wife Fran Nimmo, was reflecting on the loss of meetings in Kent and Worcestershire either side of Christmas – one to a Covid Tier 4 imposition, the other to waterlogging – while looking ahead and anticipating running six or seven horses at Larkhill in Wiltshire on Sunday.

Then a raft of new areas entered Tier 4 following Matt Hancock's Commons statement on Wednesday afternoon, and while Wiltshire hopped up one position to Tier 3, theoretically enabling Larkhill's point-to-point to take place, the position was far from clear.