HORSE Racing Ireland last week unveiled their plans to introduce three-year-old National Hunt academy hurdle races, and the potential impact of these for the point-to-point sector will be keenly observed in the years to come.

Beginning in October 2025, the races will be run for three-year-old horses, who have not previously run on the flat or under National Hunt rules, other than in academy hurdle races.

Although set to be run on racecourses, their status as far as race winners go, mirrors that of point-to-pointers, as they will maintain their maiden status, bringing the two spheres into direct competition.

Point-to-pointing has long been seen as a key cog in the Irish National Hunt eco-system, with the growing focus on four-year-old maiden races here, seen as an important element in the need to educate horses at a young age in order to compete with French horses.

The then Chairman of the TBA National Hunt Committee, Bryan Mayoh, said as much in a BHA press release, when the British regulator announced their own junior National Hunt development hurdle races in 2021.

“The impact that Irish four-year-old point-to-points are now having on the successes of Irish-trained horses supports the hypothesis that jump horses need to be broken and taught to jump earlier than has been traditional in Britain,” he stated.

Proven impact

Point-to-pointing has evolved across the past two decades to fill this role of educating horses to jump at an early age, with a particular focus on four-year-olds, and in terms of the horses it is producing, this has been tremendously successful.

The fact that, of the 41 individual former Irish pointers who have won a Grade 1 race in the past three seasons, just six of them ran in point-to-points as five-year-olds, highlights this.

But the success, which has come from focussing the point-to-point model primarily around four-year-olds, has led the sport to become heavily dependent on this age group, and this season has been a shining example of that.

Any threat to the current number of four-year-olds entering the racing system via point-to-points, could leave this sector of the sport somewhat vulnerable.

It is unlikely in the short to medium-term that those higher-end horses that are likely to realise six-figure sums, will pivot away from the four-year-old maiden route.

However, for those horses with a lower value, their connections could well see the greatest return being achieved via these academy hurdles, given the financial resources Horse Racing Ireland is putting behind them.

Money talks

HRI’s press release indicated that the races would have ‘standard prize money’, which we are to assume would see the races, at a minimum, carry the current base prize money levels of €10,000 per race.

They have also stated that ‘a number of these races will carry IRE style vouchers for eligible winning and placed horses’. The IRE incentive scheme currently offers €10,000 sales vouchers to winning owners in selected races and, if that level of financial support is transferred to these academy hurdles, winning connections could expect to take home in the region of €16,000 before they have even considered selling their horse.

The paltry €560 that connections receive for winning a four-year-old maiden soon pales into insignificance by comparison.

With four-year-old auction maiden winners this season having been subsequently sold for less than £30,000, the prospect of recouping up to an additional 50% of the horse’s value will likely be an appealing prospect for connections, which could see a number of horses pivot away from point-to-points. How many will be lured in that direction is the key question?

This latest step continues the direction of travel to start even earlier. During the summer, Tattersalls Ireland announced the introduction of a dedicated two-year-old store section, as part of the returning Part II session of the 2025 Derby sale.

By moving the process forward, horses can be assessed at an earlier stage, but the economics also change, and point-to-pointing must be agile to these developments. The fact that pointing’s own regulator recently turned down a proposal to allow four-year-old maiden races to begin a short number of weeks earlier in January, is a worry in that regard.

Welcoming the addition of the academy hurdles in his column on AtTheRaces.com, Kevin Blake’s parting comments allude to the future uncertainty, as he stated his hope that these new races would ‘help bring the most promising young National Hunt horses in Ireland away from point-to-points and back to the racecourse for their first public appearance. Such an outcome is unlikely to come about in the short-term, but a move like this can hopefully kick-start the process’.

PANDORA Briselden became the fourth female rider to get on the scoreboard this season, when she rode her own I Masked Du Potier to claim the winners-of-two contest at Ballycrystal last Sunday.

With Toni Quail and Georgie Benson chasing her home, the first three finishers were ridden by female riders, and it was an example of how these winners’ races could be an additional avenue, to expand opportunities for female riders within the pointing sphere.

Falling figures

Last season, the INHSC introduced a new prize for the leading female rider in their novice rider series, which was won by Sophie Carter.

However, just 14 female riders rode winners last season, which marked a drop on the two preceding seasons and, unfortunately, that trend is continuing this year.

Heading into the Christmas break last year, eight individual female riders had registered at least one winner, and it is disappointing that the figure is currently standing at half that at present.

For the past number of decades, races restricted solely to female riders have been confined to open lightweights.

However, that is likely limiting the number of winnable opportunities open to riders. Since the beginning of last season, 12 such races have been run, but two stables have won all bar three of them.

Possible solution

In contrast, winners’ races are likely to be more competitive. The last such race that I can find took place in the early ‘90s and featured 14 runners.

A reintroduction of this, should provide a greater number of horses holding winning claims in a single race, while for those owner-riders, it is likely also cheaper to acquire a horse capable of competing at the business end of a race.

JONATHAN Fogarty capped off an autumn season to remember, with three four-year-old maiden winners across the weekend. Starmount (93+) stood out of that trio, backing up the promise that he had shown prior to falling two-out at Damma House on debut, when behind Conman John. Racing from the front at Tattersalls, he was responsible for a strong tempo, clocking a time 15 seconds quicker than the average on the card, while still having the reserves to fend off a number of promising types.

In the mares’ division, Maribeth (83+) was certainly not winning out of turn, following a luckless effort at Turtulla recently, and she showed great battling qualities to get the better of a tight tussle, as the front pair quickened clear of their rivals from the last, in what should prove to be an above-average contest.