IT’S a shame that the Hotel Minella in Clonmel cannot cash in on the great publicity the venue received when Minella Indo won the Gold Cup.

Hotel owner John Nallen bought Minella Indo as a foal for €24,000 and sold him privately to current connections after the horse won a Dromahane point-to-point.

“I haven’t sold a drink in the hotel for 14 months,” reported owner John Nallen this week. “I can’t see the hotel opening up this summer, but I hope we will see point-to-points back very soon.”

John is well-known as a buyer of National Hunt foals and stores, which he then prepares for point-to-points before selling them on. He has over a dozen pointers in training at the moment and is doing all he can to influence the powers-that-be to allow point-to-points resume.

When we spoke on Monday, John had just recorded an interview on Tipp FM in which he explained the link between point-to-points and Cheltenham success, and he was scheduling calls with a number of local politicians that evening.

“Now is the time to put our case forward if the season is to be saved,” he said. “The Government will be making its decisions soon.”

Great publicity

John believes the success of point-to-point graduates at Cheltenham should be reason enough to allow the sport restart. “It was the best publicity campaign you could wish for. This is like having Italia ’90 and telling people you can’t play football. Show jumping and eventing and harness racing are going ahead, and we have a watertight protocol for point-to-points that worked well in the autumn.”

When he wasn’t lobbying for the return of points this week, John was busy fielding calls and texts of congratulations for his hand in producing the 2021 Gold Cup winner. “I’m getting emails from all over the world, the coverage Cheltenham gets is unreal. I thought Cheltenham would be a disaster this year, that people would have no appetite for it, but I think it’s as big as ever.”

John recalls spotting Minella Indo at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale in 2013. “I like to ramble around the sales ground in the evenings, looking at foals in their boxes. I go for the plain, strong foals rather than the pretty ones. I saw this big fella by Beat Hollow and thought ‘He’ll do for me.’”

Memorable maiden

The day Minella Indo won his point-to-point was also memorable. Almost three years to the day before his Gold Cup success, the gelding was rushed to Dromahane point-to-point when John and his assistant James ‘Corky’ Carroll realised the meeting had survived an inspection following recent snowfall.

“Because of the snow, we had to go by Rosegreen and that takes an hour and 20 minutes. I reckon Minella Indo made that journey and won his maiden within an hour and 40 minutes.”

Minella Indo was a five-year-old then, as John likes to give his horses as much time as you need. “I’m not pushed about running them as four-year-olds. You might get an odd one, like Minella Rocco, but if you drill them too much looking for a four-year-old star, you have too much wastage. That’s the problem.”

And what about those Minella names? Where did Indo come from? “You won’t believe this but I can sometimes be found at all hours of the night, sitting at reception with the registration forms on the table, trying to come up with racehorse names.

“I looked around that night and I saw the three daily papers on the desk – the Indo, Times and Examiner – and that’s what I wrote down on the forms.”

Incidentally, Minella Times is very much one to watch. Also trained by Henry de Bromhead, this J.P. McManus-owned gelding finished a close second to Off You Go in the Leopardstown Chase last time out. The form of that race (Farclas, Scoir Mear, Goose Man) is working out extremely well. “There’s a big one in him as well,” says John.