NEXT weekend’s fixture at Ballindenisk will host the second of just three hunt races programmed for the autumn term.

Dromahane hosted the first of them earlier in the month, when the adjacent maiden at the Mallow venue produced an encouraging field of nine runners, with Eugene O’Sullivan’s Aspurofthemoment coming out on top for a popular family success.

Despite the healthy turnout for that particular contest, the fortunes of hunt races have sadly been in decline. Dwindling numbers in certain regions have resulted in committees having to make changes to the races in an effort to keep them viable.

Many hunts have made the decision to open them up to runners from neighbouring hunts, with the races switching from confined to adjacent contests.

However, for some, even after making that particular change, the races have still been deemed unviable, with the decision being made to axe them from their card in favour of a race that may attract more entries.

It can be a difficult decision for some to make. These races are a reminder of the fun aspect of the sport, guaranteeing local success on the card and the celebrations that follow in the winner’s enclosure and the evening after, all helping to attract greater local numbers through the gate.

Financial pressures

However, the reality for organisers at present is that as costs continue to rise, and with the financial pressures for hunts from insurance in particular, they need to maximise the revenues that they generate from running a point-to-point.

In February 2016, in these pages, I made the case that committees should be allowed to run their hunt race as a seventh race on the card, should they wish, in a bid to preserve them.

This would remove the need for hunt committees to make that difficult decision to axe the race from their cards.

At that time, the number of hunt races programmed had decreased by over 25% in the preceding six years.

Nothing came of the article, with the resulting inaction of the sport’s regulators leaving hunt races to flounder further.

In the years since, the number of hunt races in the autumn has halved, from six down to just three this year, while only 29 such races have been programmed for the upcoming spring 2025 term.

For context, there were 37 hunt races in the provisional summary for that spring season.

With more hunt committees having to scrap these races, the sport’s ties to its local roots are further being cut.

As it is, many of the smaller players have already been lost from the sport, such as the local farmers and syndicates, once the backbone of point-to-pointing.

The time has surely now come for those charged with protecting the sport to decide whether they are going to attempt to save these races or allow them to continue to disappear from the calendar.

IT may have taken a while to arrive, but the much-sought-after rain that fell at the beginning of the week has answered the prayers of many. The results are instantly visible, as like the flicking of a switch, the season looks set to have immediately stepped up a gear.

Already, this weekend’s three fixtures are responsible for the three largest entries this season, with Moig South tomorrow topping the leaderboard having attracted 131 entries.

Many had hoped the season would reach this point a month ago, but the unseasonably dry weather has proven challenging and led to what admittedly have been disappointing field sizes.

The most extreme example occurred last weekend when fewer than 30 runners took to the tracks at Kirkistown and Tinahely.

That will thankfully not be repeated this weekend, with real hope in the entry numbers. Of the 18 races this weekend, only one race has failed to reach double figures, that being the mares’ open at Boulta, a category that is notoriously difficult to fill.

It is particularly encouraging that the winners’ races at Boulta and Moig South attracted have entries of 19 and 18 horses, respectively.

The Stonehall committee switched their older maiden to a novice rider’s winners-of-two race this year in a move that has been well-rewarded. The race is the only winners’ contest confined to novice riders programmed for the autumn term, and it would be a positive step to see one or two more follow suit.

THE Boardsmill Stud duo William and John Flood became the first potential winners of this season’s Dungar Quality Oats National Hunt Breeder prize.

The Tipperary-based company introduced the cash prize for breeders last season, with €2,500 being awarded to the breeder of the top-priced four or five-year-old mare that was bred in Ireland, ran in a point-to-point here, before being sold at either a Goffs or Tattersalls point-to-point sale.

Onefournine was the top-priced mare at last week’s Tattersalls Cheltenham November Sale, when the daughter of Kalanisi, who had made a winning debut at Curraghmore for Colin Bowe, was bought by agents Stroud Coleman Bloodstock and the father and son joint-licence holders Jonjo and A.J. O’Neill for £170,000.

Challenges

Business owner Tadhg O’Leary of Dungar Quality Oats is also a breeder, and as a supplier of horse oats to the equine market, he understands the challenges that breeders face and says that the aim of his prize is to help encourage breeders to continue their hard work.

Cash prize

Last season’s inaugural cash prize was scooped by Carlow native Hilda Rothwell, after Echoing Silence, a Ballycahane winner on debut, achieved the sales-topping sum of £410,000 at the Cheltenham Festival sales in March.

This season, O’Leary is expanding his support of point-to-pointing by offering a €500 cash prize which will be awarded at the end of the season to one rider, drawn randomly, from those who ride their first point-to-point winner during the season.

Point-to-point ratings

ON a slightly lower-key weekend, Only For Our Man (91+) brought the only previous placed form into the nine-runner four-year-old maiden at Kirkistown, ensuring his success was not a surprise.

He did get in tight to the third-last fence which left him with a couple of lengths to make up on the pace-setting pair, but the ease at which he did so was eye-catching. At Turtulla, Alzurs Thunder (89+) has to be given credit for his debut success, given that he came up against a vastly more experienced rival, one with a particularly unusual profile having been running over hurdles in France as a three-year-old.

The mares’ equivalent on the card was a messy final half-mile, with just two finishers, making the performance of Port Jaune (78++) difficult to assess, while at Tinahely, given his pedigree, Gaelic Pride (90+) likely appreciated the best ground that he encountered to date, coming out on top of a protracted battle up the hill as the front pair pulled 22 lengths clear.