ONE of the stories of the season last year was the scrutiny that riders were coming under in relation to their use of the whip, with the significant escalation in the number of whip-related suspensions that were handed down to them.

In all, 145 days’ worth of suspensions were issued for breaches of the various whip regulations, from using the whip above shoulder height, to excessive frequency and failing to allow their mounts three strides to respond.

The scrutiny that the riders came under generated plenty of consternation within the riding ranks in the weigh tent, with many feeling that there has been little communication with them in advance of a particular focus being placed on identifying whip offences last season, while the differences between how the rules were being enforced on the racecourse and in point-to-points, also proved to be a point of frustration.

The dissatisfaction of riders was evident at the annual review meeting at the end of last season which led to a separate meeting taking place between the IHRB and members of the Qualified Riders Association during the summer to discuss the issue further.

Among the measures to emerge from that meeting included an erasing of riders’ disciplinary records at the start of this season to give them all a clean slate coming into the new campaign, while riders also now have the ability to move forward a one-day suspension.

Presently, suspensions are not served earlier than 14 days after the offence has been committed, but riders can now opt to serve a one-day suspension prior to that 14th day.

Throughout much of the opening two months of the season, it had appeared that the implementation of the whip regulations had settled down significantly in comparison with last season.

There were just six whip regulation breaches across the opening 17 fixtures of the season, with the suspensions totalling six days in all.

That compared very favourably with the same period last season, as the number of whip regulation breaches had been cut in half, down from 13 breaches and 24 days’ worth of suspensions.

With a vastly improved record of just six riders being found to be in breach of the whip regulations across this season’s opening 17 fixtures, it will have come as something of a bolt out of the blue when no fewer than five riders were found to be in breach of the whip regulations at Boulta on November 25th, including one rider who was penalised under two separate whip rules for the same ride.

Many will be questioning how there have been 763 rides across 17 fixtures up to Boulta, where only six rides were found to have breached the whip regulations, yet on the one card with just 64 runners, there were no fewer than six breaches which serves as a significant outlier to what had gone before it this term.

A BOOK charting the history of the Mitchelstown races, a long-running point-to-point that came to an end in 1958, will be launched this evening.

Its author Ollie O’Donoghue, a cousin of point-to-point handlers Colin Motherway and Stephen O’Donoghue, has brought together rare photographs, reports, and all the facts and figures from 125 years of racing there, as well as insightful interviews with those who were present.

“The first mention that I had seen of racing having taken place in Mitchelstown was in the Sweeney Guide to the Irish Turf, which listed all the locations around the country where racing had previously taken place,” O’Donoghue explains when discussing his motivation for penning the book. “I asked around, and nobody really knew anything about it. It was only when I dived into the newspaper reports in the library last Christmas that it all started coming together.

“I don’t think that I started off with the intention of ever writing a book about it, it was more about finding out about the races themselves.

“The races started a long time ago in 1834, and it was recorded by the Turf Club as an official meeting, but that is not to say it was a proper racecourse, it was probably still run along the lines of a point-to-point, but it was treated officially by the Turf Club.

“It was first mentioned as a point-to-point back in 1898, and it ran as a point-to-point right up to 1958. Having stopped in 1958 there were not so many people around with a connection to it, but I spotted an R. McCarthy in the results and put two and two together and thought that could be Bobby McCarthy.

“I spoke to him one evening, and he was telling me all about the riders from that era and the horses that he would have either rode or came up against there.

“Just the other day, I was speaking to Bill McLernon, and he rode the last winner in Mitchelstown, and of course, he had great success away from Mitchelstown too. A lot of the horses that ran at the races would have gone on to run at the Punchestown Festival and others had an impact on the Grand National.

“The newspaper reports would only get you so far, but talking to people helped to bring the newspaper reports and pictures to life, and hopefully the book captures that.”

Titled ‘The Mitchelstown Races’ the book will be officially launched in The Hunters Rest in Mitchelstown at 10pm this evening, and attendees will be able to meet the author and pick up a copy. The book can also be purchased online through mitchelstown.myshopify.com, and is priced at €23.20 including postage.

Point-to-point ratings

THERE was no shortage of action in the four-year-old maiden division last weekend with seven races in the age category, and just like he had done two years earlier, Matthew Flynn O’Connor looked to be the chief benefactor of an additional fixture at Lingstown.

In 2021, the Grade 1-winner Stay Away Fay and Grade 2-placed Deeply Superficial were his two four-year-old winners at Killinick on what was another last-minute addition to the calendar, and in similar circumstances last Saturday, it was Tumuch and Going Live that supplied him with a clean sweep of both divisions of the four-year-old geldings’ maiden.

Tumuch (94++) in particular, looks to have the potential to emulate the stable’s 2021 victors after he made much of the running en route to a 14-length debut success. Visually very impressive, he was able to slip the field turning out of the back straight, and even though it is a long run to the line from the home bend, he already had the race sewn up, as he clocked a time 14 seconds quicker than the average.

Air Of Entitlement (84++) had looked very unlucky when brought to a near standstill at Quakerstown, and she swiftly made amends with a similarly facile 16-length success in the mares’ equivalent. She too looks above average.

At Borris House, Port Joulian (93+) clocked the quickest time on the card for his winning debut, while there was no shortage of strife for Machismo (92+) to overcome in the second division of that four-year-old geldings’ maiden courtesy of a loose horse.

Holly Brook (82+) looked value for the winning margin, as although getting the better jump at the last, she was very confidently produced and only had to be shaken up to put the race to bed.

At Ballindenisk, Desert Ian (92+) was strongly pressed by the eye-catching newcomer Dangerous Touch as he backed up the promise of his Comea debut in the spring, while on the same card, Dinny Lacy (112) paid a handsome compliment to his Dromahane conqueror Ferns Lock in the open.

He can be a player in hunter chase company in the spring.