THE prolonged spell of wet weather continues to provide a significant challenge to point-to-point committees and handlers alike, with a depleted programme of fixtures this weekend beginning this afternoon at Curraghmore.

That fixture has been postponed by six days, having been found to be unfit for racing last week, and it will be the only point-to-point today, with the course at Taylorstown also found to be unfit for racing ahead of the Newry fixture.

A similar fate has befallen Rathcannon, which was due to race tomorrow, with that fixture, like Taylorstown, having had to be cancelled due to ground conditions combined with an unfavourable weather forecast.

The loss of these fixtures is even more keenly felt as they come just a week after what, barring the Covid-interrupted seasons, must be one of the quietest Easter weekends within point-to-pointing, as only Monksgrange and Quakerstown were able to race last Sunday, much to the credit of their respective committees.

The authorities had sought to add two fixtures onto this weekend’s programme using two tracks that had recently lost fixtures. However, conditions at both venues in their contingency plan had not improved sufficiently last weekend to give them the go-ahead, and as a result, they had to be shelved.

That illustrates the challenges facing all stakeholders at present, but a number of handlers have this week criticised the lack of foresight to not add a four-year-old geldings’ maiden onto the card at tomorrow’s fixture in Tattersalls.

The four-year-old maiden at the Louth Foxhounds’ meeting is confined only to mares, and with the original entries standing for today’s rescheduled fixture at Curraghmore, the loss of both Taylorstown and Rathcannon from this weekend’s programme has left them with the four-year-old maiden at Ballynoe as the only race this weekend that they could enter a four-year-old gelding in.

Such a scenario arising on the weekend prior to the Goffs Aintree sale, one of the chief boutique sales in the calendar, has led to considerable frustration among handlers who are struggling with a loss of opportunities and will often target these weekends in particular.

A divide of the Ballynoe opener is likely with 49 horses having been entered for it, but there is sure to be considerable disappointment that the fixture’s highlight, the Gain Mares Final, has attracted an entry of just six horses.

It is the lowest entry for the race, which carries a €3,000 winner’s bonus, since 2013, and it is likely that the race has unfortunately paid the price for Easter falling earlier in the calendar this year, bringing a clash with last Monday’s card in Cork.

There were 11 runners in the mares’ maiden hunter chase and nine in the mares’ point-to-point bumper at Mallow, which has likely contributed to the small turnout for tomorrow’s final.

Fortunately, Easter Monday is set to fall on April 21st next year, which will hopefully see the entries for the race, which were as high as 15 as recently as 2019, return back into double figures.

SINE Nomine gave British-trained horses a fourth win from the last six editions of the St James’s Place Hunters’ Chase at last month’s Cheltenham Festival.

Whilst that brought disappointment for Irish raiders, it was a good result for the grassroots element of point-to-pointing on both sides of the Irish Sea that the most coveted prize in the hunter-chase calendar was won by a horse that had started pointing as a five-year-old with Fiona Needham.

The grey mare had won five times between the flags for her, working her way up through the ranks, adding a further three hunter chases before claiming Cheltenham glory.

Sine Nomine is now set to have her first start under rules outside of hunter chase company in the upcoming Scottish National at Ayr, such are the intricacies of the British eligibility rules, and is therefore absent from the entries for next Thursday’s Randox Foxhunters’ Open Hunters’ Chase over the national fences at Aintree.

In fact, three of the five horses that finished behind her also do not appear among the 39 horses that have been entered, with only Emmet Mullins’ Cheltenham runner-up Its On The Line, and the third-placed Time Leader bidding to take in Aintree from the six horses who completed the Cheltenham test.

That 39-strong entry is particularly welcome on the back of the Cheltenham contest having only attracted an initial entry of 19, which was further whittled down to a field of just 12 by post time, the smallest number of runners for the race since 1998.

Irish trained

In total, there are 11 Irish-trained entries among the bumper Aintree entry as they seek to end the Irish drought in the contest, which has continued since Enda Bolger’s On The Fringe won the second of his two Aintree Foxhunters’ in 2016.

Since then, it has very much been the home team that has had the upper hand at both Cheltenham and Aintree, and if the betting is to be believed, it is the Mullins clan that hold the hopes of changing those fortunes, with Emmet’s Its On The Line and Romeo Magico, and his uncle Willie’s Annamix, the three shortest-priced Irish challengers.

Point-to-point ratings

Dance has designs to back up top pedigree

HE Can’t Dance (94+) certainly looks to have the ability to back up his pedigree, as the close relation to the eight-time Grade 1 winner Master Minded cruised through the initial test that he was set in heavy ground at Monksgrange to easily dismiss an eye-catching newcomer in Meetmebythesea. There looks to be a lot more to come from him.

The luckless Arctic Conditions (93x) had dominated the second division from a long way out, only to exit at the last with victory seemingly in the bag.

The final fence also swung the pendulum in favour of Jackie Hobbs (82+) in the mares’ equivalent, whilst the time and winning margin for Solidier In Milan (94+) point to him being significantly above average.

At Quakerstown, L’Evangeliste (89+) prevailed in a tactical opening division to the four-year-old maiden, where just six lengths covered eight of the runners at the last, restricting the performance figure that the winner could achieve.

Jordans Cross (91+) used his superior speed to stretch the field out from the third-last fence to run out the more decisive victor on debut.