HAPPY HUNTING GROUND Irish

POINT-TO-POINT Happy Hunting Ground

EOGHÁIN WARD OUTLINES HOW IRISH POINT TO POINTS ARE PLAYING A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN SOURCING NATIONAL HUNT CHAMPIONS

FOUR days at Cheltenham in March can dictate how successful an entire season has been for individual horses, jockeys, or trainers such is the behemoth that ‘The Festival’ has become.

For the Irish point-to-point scene, the 2021 edition brought an unforgettable four days which marked the culmination of sustained growth within the sector over the preceding two decades.

Of the 28 races which were run at the Olympics of national hunt racing – including the two races for juveniles which do not incorporate pointers – almost half of them, 13 to be precise, were won by horses who had started their careers in an Irish point-to-point maiden.

It was truly a dominant festival for the sport’s exports. In short, having been responsible for 27% of all runners at the Cheltenham Festival, they won 46% of races and an even more impressive 64% of the top-level Grade 1 races.

That included the blue-ribbon championship races of the Champion Hurdle with Honeysuckle and Minella Indo’s victory in the Gold Cup. From two miles over hurdles to three and a quarter miles over fences – the impact of ‘Irish Pointers’ as they have come to be known was as diverse as it was impressive.

Thoughts that this may just be a flash in the pan, once off occurrence with the stars simply aligning to provide a brief moment in the spotlight for the point-to-point nursery would seem wide off the mark when you consider the results in the novice division.

Whether over hurdles or fences, seven of the eight novice races at the Cheltenham Festival were won by Irish point-to-point graduates such as Shishkin and Bob Olinger – with pointing exports also filling 17 of the 24 placings in these races to suggest the short to mid-term outlook looks set to see that level of success maintained.

After all, the Cheltenham Festival was certainly not four days in isolation, with the entire 2020/21 season in keeping with that theme. No fewer than 113 graded or listed races went the way of Irish Pointers, a figure that included a record breaking 27 in Grade 1 company.

Top of the lot was Pat Doyle’s Suirview Stables which has already produced Grade 1 winners such as stars like First Lieutenant, Shattered Love, Death Duty, Bacardys, Brindisi Breeze and No More Heroes, and it is fair to say that the 2020/21 season continued that trend.

His graduates won 13 graded or listed races last season, a total that surpasses what any of his colleagues in the handler’s division achieved, with a trio of Cheltenham Festival winners included in that courtesy of Ballymore Novice Hurdle victor Bob Olinger, Supreme Novice Hurdle winner Appreciate It and Colreevy, the

Bob Olinger – Winner at Cheltenham

winner of the inaugural Mares’ Chase.

In the pointing fields itself, the government restrictions in response to the Covid-19 pandemic brought action between the flags to a halt for the second consecutive spring season. There was not a fence jumped competitively in the pointing fields between a fixture at Dromahane on December 20th and the full restart at Lisronagh some five months later on May 1st.

Some less conventional fixtures were staged as point-to-points were moved from their historical homes on agricultural lands and onto official racecourses. Three all point-to-point bumpers taking place at Punchestown, Wexford and Tipperary throughout the month of March, before four and five-year-old maiden point-topoints were accommodated at Cork, Fairyhouse and Tipperary racecourses throughout the month of April in a bid to restart a portion of the economic activity that point-to-pointing generates for the rural Irish economy.

Whilst that lengthy stoppage contributed to a significantly curtailed season, it certainly did little to stop the recent dominance that Barry O’Neill and Colin Bowe have enjoyed as the powerhouse operators in the sphere.

For Bowe, the Milestone Stables operator was crowned champion handler for a ninth time when the 2020/21 season came to a close in late May. Remarkably, and in spite of so much of the season having not taken place, the Co. Wexford handler enjoyed one of his best seasons to date as he sent out 44 winners and further 59 placed finishers from a total of 216 runners. That was just one winner shy of his previous personal best, whilst for Barry O’Neill, he was simply piece of history that O’Neill created when he became the first rider to pick up all four of the regional titles in the same season, a feat which had not previously been achieved in the near 40 years since those titles were created.

Of the other rider’s titles, Maxine O’Sullivan won her fifth ladies crown having enjoyed a late spring surge with David Christie, as she supplied the Co. Fermanagh handler with his 300th winner between the flags when Marinero won a Ladies Open at Ballingarry.

Pearse Rogan had begun the season without having ridden a winner, however his breakthrough campaign saw him end the year as the Under-21 champion, a title that has been won in recent years by the likes of Sean O’Keeffe and Shane Fitzgerald – two riders who have successfully made the switch to the professional ranks showing that it is not just the sport’s equine graduates that are making their mark on the racecourse.

Having been narrowly denied at both the Cheltenham and Punchestown Festivals Billaway (John Turner) was the season’s champion horse, John Walsh’s High Stakes was the champion point-to-pointer, with The Forge Hill for Sean Doyle crowned champion mare. All in all, it is fair to say that 2021 is a year that won’t be quickly forgotten about by those in the pointing sphere.

Billaway – leading Hunter Chaser 2020/21 The Forge Hill – Leading Mare 2020/21

unstoppable in the rider’s division.

A total of 54 winners saw him end the season, one which saw his great rival and county man Jamie Codd bow out of point-to-pointing with a winner at Tattersalls in May, having ridden almost three times the number of winners as any other rider during the campaign.

More meritoriously however was the notable

Pat Doyle