Edmunds ushers Andrews to house party with a difference

From the day she started race-riding ten years ago, Gina Andrews was gently admonished for setting her sights too high. “It has always been my ambition to ride a winner at the Cheltenham Festival,” she says. “I was told it was pretty unrealistic but now it has actually happened.”

It took some time to sink in. The driving finish that saw her force Domesday Book past Pendra in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Amateur Riders’ Handicap Chase was followed by a night of celebration with friends and family. Only when she awoke on Friday morning did reality dawn with the day.

Among the party that evening was her younger sister Bridget, who has ridden more winners than any other female rider this season and who is attached, in more ways than one, to Dan Skelton’s set-up near Aston Cantlow, in Warwickshire. But the gathering was brief. The following morning Andrews, 25, made the trek to Fakenham for a solitary ride.