SEVENTY-THREE fixtures have been scheduled for the spring 2025 fixture list, which is broadly in line with recent seasons. The list follows a largely similar path, beginning at Dromahane on December 30th and, mirroring last season, ending with a double-header at Ballingarry and Inchydoney on May 25th.

March once again remains the busiest month, with a total of 20 fixtures. This is bolstered by Oldcastle moving forward by a month and returning to a March date that it had filled through the first decade of the millennium, while Loughbrickland makes a welcome return at the end of the month.

The Co Down Staghounds’ course has been absent from the calendar since October 2022, and that will be a particular boost for the northern region, which has endured a low-key four-fixture autumn campaign this term.

Monksgrange dropped

In April, the second fixture at Monksgrange has been dropped, and the Laois Foxhounds will also stage just one point-to-point this season, that will take place on Sunday, April 13th.

The loss of their traditional mid-May fixture ensures that action in the eastern region will be wrapped up particularly early in 2025, following a double-header at Tullaherin and Fairyhouse on April 27th.

Despite the loss of the May fixture in Stradbally, Co Laois, the month will still stage a healthy 13 fixtures, with Loughrea returning to a mid-May date and Necarne and Toomebridge switching places to leave the two-day Fermanagh fixture to bring the northern season to an end.

There is also confirmation that, despite the former site of the Tralee Racecourse having changed ownership, the North Kerry point-to-point will continue there in 2025 on May 18th.

THE highlight of the spring fixture list has been the addition of two new courses to the point-to-point calendar.

The scarcity of land at present is an added challenge to hunt committees when they must source new tracks to run a point-to-point, but the efforts of the Longford Harriers and Kilkenny Foxhounds will hopefully be rewarded in the spring, when they unveil their new courses.

The Longford Harriers will be the first to do so, returning to the fixture list after a short absence, following their last fixture at Corbeagh House in December 2022.

For so long, the hunt’s point-to-point fixtures were closely associated with the late Cecil and Carol Ross.

Keeping history alive

The current committee is hoping to keep that connection and history alive, when they race at Daramona House on Sunday, March 16th, as the Longford Harriers point-to-point secretary Linda Gallagher explained.

“It is a great horsey county in Longford and, although the new track is just outside the county, it is important to keep the memory of the Rosses going,” she said.

“It is just outside Streete in Co Westmeath and there is a great community around there. It is only a couple of miles off the N4, so it is very central and easily accessible from around the country. The track itself will be in a lovely flat field, with big oak and beech trees around it, and it will all be in the one field.

“It is actually a place that we had looked at about 15 years ago before we got Corbeagh, but once we got Corbeagh, we never went ahead with it.”

Kilkenny’s turn

Just over a month later, it will be the turn of the Kilkenny Foxhounds to introduce a new course, with the inaugural fixture at Tullaherin taking place on Sunday, April 27th.

“We are absolutely thrilled and incredibly grateful to the landowner, Ian Williams,” clerk of the course Nicholas Lambert explained. “Ian is a neighbour of mine, and he is also good friends with Niall Brennan, who is involved with the point-to-point.

“We first had a look at it in April and, after we had another look at the end of August or early September, we really thought that it could work. Niall Byrne [IHRB course inspector] came down, and we got the go-ahead three weeks ago.”

Since then, it has been all hands on deck, with the prolonged period of dry weather working in the committee’s favour to allow the early preparatory work to be completed this week.

“We have the track marked out, gaps taken out, roadway entrances made, and it will all be seeded by the end of the week, ready to go,” Lambert added.

“Ian has been so incredibly obliging in the last couple of weeks throughout all the work. We have opened gateways, not just for the track, but also for car parks. He has also laid hedges to improve visibility.

“The track itself will be right-handed, a mile and a furlong around, there will be a long home straight, with two fences.”

This will not be the landowner Ian Williams’ first involvement with point-to-pointing.

“It is something that I have been interested in for a while,” he said. “I have had a couple of horses with Colin Bowe, I would usually have one horse with him every year, either a mare that I might breed or buy one with him. Colin has been to the track and felt it would work, and it has all happened quite quickly.

“We have been very lucky to get the good weather to get all the work done, so we are looking forward to it now.”

RECENT weeks have highlighted the dependence that now exists within point-to-pointing on four-year-old maiden races.

Many of the 16 fixtures run so far this season, during the ongoing unseasonably dry period, would have been unviable only for the larger entries within the four-year-old maiden races on the respective cards.

That is again clear in the entries for this weekend’s action, particularly at Kirkistown and Tinahely.

While the current below-expected entry levels can largely be attributed to the prevailing ground conditions, mirroring the situation inside the rails, they do highlight the ever-increasing imbalance.

Of the 1,033 hunter certificates that were active at the beginning of the week, over half, 536 to be exact, were for four-year-olds.

The authorities have reacted to the continued strength within the four-year-old division by programming additional races for the category in the spring 2025 season.

There will be an additional nine races between the four-year-old geldings’ and mares’ divisions in the new year, with five extra four-year-old geldings’ maiden races, whilst the four-year-old mares’ maiden category has been boosted by an additional four races.

This will result in an increased number of fixtures that will stage two four-year-old maiden races on the same card, which should boost the entry income for hunt committees.

A happy Barry O'Neill after winning aboard Suburban Legend \ Healy Racing

COLIN Bowe’s incredibly strong start to the season has shown no sign of abating, with Suburban Legend (94++) his latest impressive winner at Quakerstown.

The Harzand gelding lengthened clear from the home bend under hands and heels only in a quick time, suggesting there is a lot more to come from him.

Brooklyn Callin (81+) only faced three rivals, but they were a trio of previously proven individuals to add depth to her performance in the mares’ equivalent on the card.

At Dromahane, Affinity Rock (85++) dominated from the front to win by 15 lengths; in contrast, Hunt Away (92+) came from an unlikely position in the four-year-old geldings, whilst Gameofinches (93++) looks every inch a future-graded performer in the five-year-old division, having powered clear of a chasing pack that included recently placed rivals. Stamina was put to a greater test at Knockmullen House, where Sage Green (90+) returned unchallenged.