Hawick rider Isaac Amos looking forward to eventful season after eight months out of action

Isaac Amos and his eventing horse Sugar Sensation (Photo: Bill McBurnie)

The 20-year-old is taking part in that event at Thirsk this Saturday and Sunday, April 10 and 11, his first visit there, and he’s hoping a hectic few months is set to follow after being out of action for so long.

He’ll be riding Sugar Sensation, a 14-year-old bay gelding he’s owned for the last six years.

Next up on his calendar after that is another competition south of the border at Frenchfield, east of Penrith in Cumbria, on Saturday, May 1.

Amos, a former pupil of Hawick High School and the town’s Drumlanrig St Cuthbert’s Primary School, can’t wait to get back in the saddle competitively, saying: “I’m really looking forward to getting back out there.

“It’ll be good to be competing again.

“I don’t really know how I’ll get on this weekend. I’ll give it my best go, but it’s more about getting back out there and doing it again and getting into a routine.”

Coronavirus restrictions and lockdowns curtailed his season last year but he still managed to take part in five contests in northern England and the south of Scotland, only two or three fewer than usual.

Hawick racehorse trainer Alastair Whillans with Corrieben Reiver (Photo: Bill McBurnie)

“There were no events for months but they really crammed them in at the end of the season so I was still able to get to five events,” he said.

“Usually, I’d expect to get to seven or eight in a season so it wasn’t that far off.”

Besides running his own eventing yard at Ancrum, Amos has been helping out Hawick racehorse trainer Alistair Whillans part-time for the last three years since returning to his home-town after two years working at events stables in Perth for Dan Ockenden and also, in much the same neck of the woods, Ron Brady.

One of Whillans’ horses is being lined up for a run out at Aintree in Merseyside this weekend, albeit in Saturday’s £56,000 EFT Systems Handicap Hurdle at 1.45pm rather than the Grand National itself.

His contender, potentially one of 51 runners, is Corrieben Reiver, a chestnut gelding belonging to John and Liz Elliot.

The seven-year-old’s last win was at Kelso in February, though he was a runner-up at Ayr in mid-March too.