AS 2024 draws to a close, point-to-pointing is in the middle of a brief mid-season pause in advance of the spring term commencing at Dromahane on December 30th, but the year has produced many great successes to reflect on.

Bob Olinger set the tone for the year with his New Year’s Day triumph in the Relkeel Hurdle at Cheltenham right back at the start of 2024. In the months that followed, successes have been plentiful, leaving the current tally of black-type victories at an impressive 108 on the eve of the jam-packed Christmas racing programme.

Donnchadh Doyle is the handler responsible for producing the greatest number of them. His former inmates secured 12 blacktype races this year, headlined by the recent Punchestown John Durkan Chase victor Fact To File.

It will be hoped that the festive season will bring further Grade 1 gifts in the coming days, with Fact To File potentially being joined by the likes of Constitution Hill, Hewick, Gerri Colombe, Envoi Allen, Banbridge, Found A Fifty, The Jukebox Man, and Croke Park among others, as just some of the ex-Irish pointers who are expected to be in the hunt for top-level honours this Christmas.

Before they re-enter competition in the days to come, there have already been 21 Grade 1 prizes captured in 2024 by pointing exports, with a trio of handlers noted for producing a pair of this year’s Grade 1 victors.

A Stellar year

Donnchadh Doyle is among that cohort, thanks to the aforementioned Fact To File, alongside Cheltenham festival winner Stellar Story. The former has already won three Grade 1 prizes this season, winning at both the Dublin Racing Festival and Cheltenham Festival as a novice chaser in the spring, before making the transition into open company with aplomb at Punchestown earlier this month.

The Poliglote gelding will bid to bring his tally of Grade 1 honours to four in the Savills Chase on Saturday, when he could lock horns with Gerri Colombe, a horse that bolstered his Grade 1 tally in the Aintree Bowl in the spring.

Just like 12 months ago, that eight-year-old and Envoi Allen were the two horses who delivered the goods in Grade 1 company for champion handler Colin Bowe. Despite the French-bred edging towards his 11th birthday, he added a ninth Grade 1 to his CV last month, for what is now not far off seven years since he won the first four-year-old maiden of the 2018 year in Ballinaboola.

Colin McKeever may not have had quite the same number of horses at his disposable as either Doyle or Bowe when previously charged with preparing the Wilson Dennison youngsters for their pointing introductions, but he matched their accomplishments of producing a pair of this year’s Grade 1 winners.

Burning it up

Ballyburn lit up the novice hurdle ranks in the spring with top-level victories at Leopardstown, Cheltenham and Punchestown, and his talents have unsurprisingly transferred to the chasing division.

Whilst the loss of the Grade 1 two-mile novice chase from Leopardstown’s St Stephen’s day card has prevented him from adding to his Grade 1 tally in this calendar year, his owner Ronnie Bartlett is likely to still have Banbridge to rely upon in the King George at Kempton on the same afternoon.

Another graduate of the former McKeever-Dennison team, he claimed the Punchestown Champion Chase in the spring.

Those results continue to drive the demand for the latest crop of pointers that have taken their formative racing steps in the pointing fields this year.

Following the completion of the recent ThoroughBid and Cheltenham sales, which brought the public sales season in this sector to a close for the year, the total spent on Irish Pointers in 2024 nudged close to £27 million.

Over £7 million of that was generated in the autumn, a significant rise from £2.3 million 10 years earlier. The average price realised by horses sold at public auction this autumn stood at £74,422, up from £44,147 in the autumn 2014 campaign.

ONE of the standout performances of 2024 in the pointing fields has undoubtedly come courtesy of Winged Leader. David Christie’s 10-year-old will seek to record his 15th victory in the calendar year next Monday, as he is one of 18 horses that have been entered for the non-graded winners’ open at Dromahane.

Twelve months ago, Winged Leader was a beaten odds-on favourite in the very same race, when coming up short against Hitak. He would suffer one further defeat at Kirkistown in February, but that third position behind Gorthill and Jay Bee Why has so far proven to be his only defeat in the calendar year, as he has taken his owners, John Hegarty and Jennifer O’Kane, on quite the journey since then.

A winning run, which began at Farmacaffley in late February, and has continued into this season following the summer break, reached 14 consecutive wins at Ballycrystal earlier this month.

Those first nine wins in the opening half of the year took him to the champion point-to-point crown with a single-season winning tally that has only once been bettered since the title was first introduced in 2012. That was when Kruzhlinin and Longhouse Music shared title honours in 2019, after each winning 13 races. However, by returning this season in the same form that he had signed off from last season, and winning each of his five outings, he has achieved something many of the previous champions that were crowned before him largely struggled with.

Challenging

Of the 13 years that the title has been awarded, in half of those years, the champion did not win again in the pointing fields, highlighting the challenge that securing the crown can be.

Prior to this season, it was the 2015 joint-champion Carrigeen Acebo who had faired best of the former champion in their subsequent efforts, as she went on to win three races before being retired.

It is that great constitution that his connections now hope will allow him to climb further up the all-time list of winners. As it stands, victory at Dromahane next Monday could see him move alongside Eugene O’Sullivan’s Arctic Times on the 28-winner mark, with further greats of the sport, such as Ah Whisht, Corryvreckan and Under Way, all within touching distance behind the unrivalled Still William, who sits clear of the pack on 33 wins.

It is close to 17 years since Arctic Times was the last horse to break through the 25 career point-to-point winner mark, so what Winged Leader has been able to do is already something out of the ordinary, and he is now getting ever-closer to achieving something quite extraordinary.