WHEN Starzand crossed the line to win the third four-year-old race run on the December 30th card at Dromahane, Ellen Doyle’s charge brought the curtain down on the 2024 calendar year of races within the age group.
These races have long been the place of big business. This is not just for the owners and handlers sourcing and producing the equine talent that populate these races, but also for the bloodstock agents and trainers attempting to select the pick of the year’s crop, and the stallion masters seeking to secure nominations for the following year’s covering season.
Reputations are won and lost within these races, so what did 2024 tell us?
Walk In The Park again claimed star billing, with the former Derby runner-up responsible for 15 four-year-old maiden winners across 2024, more than double the number of any other stallion.
That is a dominant position at the summit of the leaderboard for the Grange Stud resident who is able to take advantage of having hoofs on the ground in large numbers.
A total of 50 of his offspring ran 82 times during the year to produce those 15 successes. In that regard, it is a numbers game that he won.
That strike rate, however, also betters the next five stallions on the leaderboard. Affinisea and Order Of St George come in joint second with seven winners apiece, one more than the trio of Getaway, Jukebox Jury and Soldier Of Fortune, who were each responsible for six four-year-old maiden winners.
Eye-catching achievements
Within the top 10, there are two particularly eye-catching achievements by Harzand and Court Cave, when their respective number of runners are considered.
The Kilbarry Lodge Stud resident Harzand certainly announced himself in no uncertain terms within the pointing ranks, as he was responsible for five four-year-old winners in 2024.
That included Gentleman Toboot at Lingstown in March, his first winner in this sphere, and a horse that has already progressed to win a bumper for new connections.
Those five winners are certainly all the more notable when it is considered that just 11 horses by the former dual Derby winner contested a four-year-old maiden last year.
Boardsmill Stud sadly lost Court Cave last summer, but he continued to outperform with his numbers, producing four winners within the age group in 2024 from a total of just 10 horses who contested a race in the sphere.
Further down the order, Castle Du Berlais, Balko, El Salvador, Sageburg and Tunis were others to boast notable strike rates from small numbers, but none can lay claim to the result of Snow Sky.
The former Royal Ascot winner may have been responsible for only two horses that ran in four-year-old maiden races in 2024, but remarkably, both returned victorious.
Parish Quiz won at Knockanohill for Sean Doyle, while his younger brother Donnchadh saddled Show In The Sky to claim the spoils at Tinahely in October, in a laudable result for the Ballycurragh Stud team in Carlow.
HANDLERS have expressed their disappointment at the news that prize money levels are only set for a modest rise in 2025.
As part of Horse Racing Ireland’s budget for the year ahead, an extra €100 has been added to the value of all point-to-point races, with the exception of those races confined to four and five-year-old horses.
This will see the majority of races in the pointing sphere now worth a total of €1,850, an increase of 5.7%, with four and five-year-old races remaining at a total value of €800.
Prize money levels have remained static for six consecutive years since HRI announced a 13% increase in prize money for point-to-points in 2019.
Since then, the total allocation of funding that HRI has received from the government has increased by over €12 million to €79.28 million for 2025.
In advance of the 2025 budget, the Point-to-Point Handlers Association made a submission to HRI seeking to increase the prize money for older races to a minimum of €2,000, which would have been in line with the increase introduced in 2019.
Unsurprisingly, Gerry Kelleher, chairman of the Point-to-Point Handlers Association, has been left frustrated by the news that the increase will be less than half of that.
Disappointed
“As a group, we are very disappointed by this decision,” he said. “When you look at the costs involved, they are increasing all the time. The cost of hunter certs and entry fees has gone up.
“Okay, it is an insurance levy, but these are all extra costs that are falling on handlers on top of everything else going up in price.
“We have not had a prize money increase since 2019, and since then, the number of handlers with a hunter certificate has dropped by 23%, and the number of older horses with a hunter certificate has gone down by 14%.
“We put this to HRI, highlighting the immediate need to increase the prize money to €2,000. We also requested to meet with them to discuss the situation, but that hasn’t happened.
“Since we got confirmation during the week, the feedback that I have been receiving from handlers is a real sense of disappointment with this outcome.
“Hopefully, HRI will agree to meet with us soon and we can see where we go from here.”