Deegan goes conditional

FEW riders will not have weighed up the prospect of making the switch to the track following a second successive year of interruptions and rising star Jordan Gainford has already elected to head in that direction and it appears there a number of point-to-point regulars following him.

The most successful being Richie Deegan who has turned conditional having amassed close to 60 winners in point-to-points following a very successful association with Aidan Fitzgerald that stretches back over a decade, with the Carlow handler influential in his decision.

“I had always wanted to and never did, but it is after being a little quiet the last couple of years and I suppose when the shutdown came again, Scobie just said to me that maybe I should give it a go.

“He thought it was a good idea and I have always listened to him,” said Deegan who has ridden 38 winners on the track.

The former Grade 1-winner is currently riding out for Willie Mullins and Pat Fahy and will be represented by agent Ken Whelan.

The suspension has also seen Shane Fitzgerald frequenting the track more often and he has admitted that he is also looking at making a more permanent move in that direction in the coming months.

“I will probably turn in April if it is not back. I am going to John Ryan one morning a week now just to try and get a few rides on the track and we will see what happens in the next few weeks,” said Fitzgerald.

He has 53 point-to-point winners to his name and has shared the under-21 title with Liam Quinlan in 2018 and Sean O’Keeffe a year later, both of whom have subsequently joined the conditional ranks.

“It is far from ideal with point-to-pointing gone and who knows how long that will be for, which has made it hard to know what to do.

“Even if it does come back I will probably go at the end of the season. I just won’t leave Mick (Goff) here hanging.”

JACK Hendrick has seen both sides of the effect that the current suspension of point-to-point racing has had.

The 21-year-old, who is a second cousin of Jamie Codd, was already enjoying his best ever season between the flags, but with more and more point-to-point horses heading to the track, he was able to capitalise as the Sean Doyle-trained Longque provided him with a first success under rules when landing a Down Royal bumper at the beginning of the month.

“To get the opportunity to ride the horse was brilliant. He was ready to run down in Killeagh the weekend that the point-to-points got called off, so he was fit and had gone well in a schooling bumper,” said Hendrick.

“It was only my third ride on the track. I had a ride in the hunter chase at Naas the week before and then a ride in the JT McNamara Series in Punchestown the week before that, so it all came quiet quickly.”

That initial winner on the track has come as some form of compensation to the Mayglass native who had finished 2020 on a run of good form courtesy of his association with Cormac Doyle and that has left him ruing the timing of the current suspension.

“It couldn’t have come at a worse time for me. I had six winners in the autumn and five of them were four-year-olds and I was getting plenty of rides. I ride all of Cormac’s and then I was picking up plenty of spares too.

“One weekend in Borris I think there a couple of divides and I had eight rides in a day. I wouldn’t have had that in eight weeks last year,” he added.

“It would have been nice to keep the ball rolling as Cormac has plenty of nice horses to run in the spring and we’re excited about them.

“This was the year that I was going to make a breakthrough so to speak and it’s all been shut down again.”