NEXT Tuesday is an example of the many balls that handlers will be attempting to juggle at this time of the year.

Not only will they be making entries for the final four fixtures of the season, and their last opportunity before the summer recess to get a run into their 2023/’24 season horses, but they will already be turning one eye to 2025 with Doncaster hosting the first of this year’s store sales.

Many handlers will be glad to see the end of the current campaign, which has been challenging for many.

Not least due to the particularly wet conditions that dominated large chunks of the campaign, alongside periods of sickness that many reported affecting the form of their stables.

What impact those difficulties will have on their spending power within the store sales market will become clear in the coming weeks, but it will certainly be watched closely given the significant presence they, as a cohort, have grown to exert in that market.

Last year’s sales of unraced horses saw the concentration around a select number of stallions intensify, and one of the most sought-after stallions, Walk In The Park, has been doing the business in the point-to-point fields.

In the overall standings, Soldier Of Fortune looks on course to become champion point-to-point sire. He is 11 winners clear of Ocovango, with Doyen and last year’s title winner Mahler a further two winners back in equal third.

A handful of multiple winners for a stallion can skew those overall numbers, with the number of four-year-old maiden winners one metric that is keenly observed by breeders.

Walk In The Park tops this leaderboard, with the Grange Stud-resident stallion having sired more than double the number of four-year-old maiden winners of any other stallion this year.

Taking advantage of having the most runners in the age group this spring, his offspring have claimed eight races in the category, with Derek O’Connor and Donnchadh Doyle each saddling two.

In the face of such a lobsided market at the National Hunt foal and store sales last year, it is interesting to note that no fewer than 50 individual stallions have already sired a four-year-old point-to-point winner in the spring 2024 term.

The accompanying table lists those stallions who have sired two or more winners in the age group this year, and their number of runners up to and including last weekend’s action.

Stallions

Creditably, several stallions feature on that list despite having only a single-figure number of runners.

El Salvador is one such performer whose stats jump off the page. The Killack Stud resident has sired two four-year-old winners in 2024 from just four runners, including Mark Scallan’s impressive debut Dromahane scorer Captains Speech.

That is a feat matched by the late Shantou, while Wings Of Eagles and Harzand are two others to have done so with eight or fewer four-year-old runners.

THE Pembrokeshire Hunt has been well-rewarded for their efforts to lure Irish handlers over to bolster the numbers at their point-to-point at Trecoed Farm in Wales this afternoon.

Taking advantage of their date on the final Saturday in advance of the Goffs Spring sale, where over 160 horses with Irish point-to-point form will be shipped across to Doncaster, they have pitched their international fixture as a stop along the way for Irish handlers making that trip to the Doncaster sales ring.

It is no surprise that Wexford handlers, in particular, have shown the most interest in the fixture, as the course is located just five minutes from the Stena Line ferry port in Fishguard, which has direct daily sailings from Rosslare.

Significant boost

Sixteen Irish entries have been made for today’s fixture, which is a significant boost to the hunt and its 56 ‘home’ entries.

The Doyle brothers Donnchadh and Cormac have the strongest representation of Irish challengers, as they have made a total of nine entries.

All their horses have been switched to Donnchadh’s partner, Susan James, for their potential Welsh debuts, with Irish horses having the greatest presence in the four and five-year-old maiden, with six of the 14 runners.

Strongest form

Golan Loop has the strongest form of the Irish half-dozen, although the Walk In The Park gelding is also entered in both of today’s fixtures on this side of the Irish Sea at Taylorstown and Stradbally.

They could be joined by Harley Dunne, who had made three entries for the card, fellow Wexford handler John Paul Brennan, who has a pair of entries, and Denis Murphy, who could run just one horse, Blixt Bandit, in the restricted.

Richard Foley is the only Irish handler from outside of Wexford to have made an entry at the fixture, his unraced five-year-old Moulane A Chroi, is one of two Irish entries for the two-mile flat race at the end of the card.

NEXT week’s season-ending weekend of fixtures will now feature two double headers, with the IHRB announcing that the North Kerry fixture in Tralee, which has cancelled last month, has been rescheduled for next Saturday, May 24th.

The card will consist of a four-year-old maiden, five-year-old geldings’ maiden, five-year-old and upwards mares’ maiden, an open for novice riders, a winners’ race and six-year-old and upwards geldings’ maiden.

Point-to-point Ratings