THE Christmas racing extravaganza proved to be an incredible advertisement for just how influential point-to-point horses have become in the wider National Hunt game on both sides of the Irish Sea.
That action on St Stephen’s Day, in particular, stood out for the sensational returns for point-to-pointing. When the juvenile races are excluded from the 10 fixtures that took place across that afternoon, horses that had run in an Irish point-to-point at the start of their careers were responsible for winning over half of the races run on the day that they were eligible for. That is a remarkable return.
A total of 36 race wins on that one day represents a record haul and, by some significant margin, too. It also must bode well for the future, as it is telling that the average age of those 36 winners was just six. That highlights how it was not just a numbers game with ex-pointers flooding the racing scene, with it being relatively recent exports that were tasting success.
Four-year-olds Dalston Lad, Gentleman Toboot and Kingston Queen all won bumpers, whilst the similarly aged Paddys Policy and Sign Again were winners over hurdles. The quintet all gained their victories having run in a point-to-point maiden earlier during the spring 2024 term.
Perhaps of most note was the top-level results on St. Stephen’s Day. Five Grade 1 contests were down for decision across three venues on the afternoon, and all five were claimed by pointing exports – Potters Charm, The Jukebox Man, Constitution Hill, Croke Park and Banbridge.
Interestingly, it was a further reminder that it is not always the winner that is the horse to follow from races between the flags, with three of that Grade 1-winning quintet failing to win a point-to-point maiden before progressing to the track.
Maiden winner
Kauto Star Novice Chase victor The Jukebox Man was the only one of that St Stephen’s day Grade 1-winning group to win his four-year-old maiden first time out, a win that he achieved at Turtulla for Ellen and James Doyle in 2022.
Leopardstown winner Croke Park gained his success at Dromahane for Denis Murphy having finished second on debut at Lingstown when 10 lengths adrift of Barry The Butcher, highlighting what a shame it is that he never made it to the track.
Constitution Hill (ex-Warren Ewing), Banbridge (ex-Colin McKeever) and Potters Charm (ex-Michael Mangan) all achieved a best placing of second in the pointing sphere before changing stables to begin their respective careers under rules.
The festive winners continued aplenty after St. Stephen’s day, with a further 37 horses winning over the following three days, including high-profile race wins for Romeo Coolio (ex-Donnchadh Doyle) in the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown and Val Dancer (ex-Michael Murphy) in the Welsh National.
The Christmas racing period also produced the first track success for one of this season’s four-year-old maiden winners. Kovanis gained that honour, with his victory in the bumper at Leopardstown last Saturday.
His three-quarters of a length success came just over two months after the Tunis gelding had made a winning debut, impressively landing his four-year-old maiden at Portrush for Ger Quinn and Philip McBurney.
That particular Portrush maiden is famed for its 2016 winner Finian’s Oscar, who won two Grade 1 races the same season.
The race has once again delivered a ready track winner with the French-bred Kovanis, who had topped the November Sale in Cheltenham, coming up trumps for his new owner-trainer combination of Gordon Elliott and Gigginstown House Stud.
TWO new names put themselves front and centre within the hunter chase division for the months ahead as action within that category enjoyed a notable gear change over the Christmas period.
The St. Stephen’s Day contest at Down Royal is the first open hunter chase of the season, and whilst this latest edition did not possess quite the same level of depth as some of the previous editions that had gone before it, it still produced a very noteworthy winner in Big Interest.
There have been countless examples of the impact that younger horses are having within top-level hunter chases, and this was yet another, as the Soldier Of Fortune gelding became the first five-year-old to win this particular race in the past 20 years.
It was noteworthy that his new trainer, David Christie, elected to bypass winners’ company in the pointing sphere and pitch him straight into a hunter chase at this level for his stable debut, and also for what was his first run since winning a five-year-old geldings’ maiden at Castlelands in March.
Whilst he had claimed that victory for Sean Doyle by a distance, achieving the joint-highest rating for a five-year-old maiden winner in the spring 2024 term in the process, it was still a very notable effort to come through his first start over racecourse fences at this level, having jumped straight from maiden company.
More excitement
Fast forward three days and it was a similarly exciting prospect with a comparatively progressive profile that claimed the spoils in the maiden hunter chase at Limerick.
Con’s Roc had just one extra run when compared with Big Interest, having followed up his adjacent maiden victory at Knockanard by returning alone in a four-runner winners-of-one at Ballyknock.
Whilst both of those victories were achieved on heavy ground, the term heavy was absent from the going description of that Limerick contest for just the second time in 10 years last Sunday.
Having outstayed the four-timer-seeking Willitgoahead in Limerick, his connections are now dreaming of a place in the Cheltenham line-up, and it is fair to assume that both Christmas winners are set to continue the trend of younger horses having a big impact within the hunter chase division for the season ahead on this evidence.
JONATHAN Fogarty was responsible for one of the achievements of the season thus far when he sent out the winners of all three four-year-old maiden races on the Killinick card at Lingstown in late November.
Remarkably, a little over a month later, that feat was matched when the Wexford siblings Ellen and James Doyle sent out the winners of the opening three races on the card at Dromahane on Monday.
One remarkable aspect of the Fogarty hat-trick in the Lingstown four-year-old maiden races was the sizeable winning margins for his trio – a cumulative total of 78 lengths – but two of the Doyle’s winners also ran out wide-margin victors. Afancy Getaway struck first for a 23-length debut success, a winning distance that was marginally bettered by her stablemate, Starzand, who claimed division two of the four-year-old geldings’ maiden by 25 lengths, with a further 20 lengths back to the third.
Like that son of Harzand, Modern Man had finished placed on debut before stepping up from his third in the red-hot Umma House maiden in October to win the opening split of the four-year-old geldings’ maiden in Dromahane.
The hat-trick capped off a notable Christmas for the Baltimore Stables team as it followed four days after their former Turtulla four-year-old maiden winner The Jukebox Man had gained a deserved breakthrough victory at Kempton, with the six-year-old having been placed in three Grade 1 novice hurdles last season.