TOMORROW’S adjacent hunt winners’ race at Umma House exemplifies the difficulty facing many hunt committees across the country to keep their local hunt races alive.

Prior to switching from The Pigeons to their current venue at Umma House in 2020, the race was run as a confined hunt event, limited to horses with a South Westmeath hunter certificate.

Just nine years ago the 2013 race attracted a very healthy entry for the category of 11, with local handlers targeting the race as a highlight of their season. Over the next few years many of the owners and handlers who would have filled the race each year no longer had horses to run in the race. The committee commendably elected to persevere with the race but, faced with a reduced number of horses eligible to run it, altered the race conditions to open it up slightly.

Instead of being confined to just the South Westmeath Hunt, the race has become an adjacent hunt winners’ race. This year’s contest was open to horses with hunter certificates from 10 adjoining hunt clubs.

The difficulty for the committee this year is that half of these hunt clubs – Longford, Brosna, Ballymacad, Co Roscommon and East Galway – did not have any horses hunter-certificated by the time entries opened last week.

The net result is the race unfortunately produced just four entries, the smallest on what otherwise is very well-supported card, as the course has proven a popular addition to the autumn calendar.

It does remain disappointing that a solution to allow such committees run confined or adjacent races as a seventh race on cards cannot be introduced. After all, this would financially assist committees right around the country to continue to preserve these races into the future, given the history that these races have with the sport’s foundations.

Gain Mares Series ready to start

GAIN Equine Nutrition launched this season’s Gain Mares Series at the yard of Terence Leonard in Limerick, ahead of the opening race in the series which is at Damma House on Sunday, November 6th.

The Leonard-trained Koyote fended off Fiery Brown’s in last season’s final to provide veteran rider Mikey O’Connor with his fourth victory in the big-money final.

As usual the series builds towards one of the highlights of the season with the final taking place at its long-term home at Ballynoe in the spring.

Connections

A €3,000 bonus will once again be up for grabs for the winner of the final as well as a tonne of feed for connections of the first horse home, half a tonne of feed for second, and 10 bags of Gain Equine Nutrition for third place.

Joanne Hurley, Irish Country Manager for Gain, commented: “It’s a fantastic series that we are delighted to be a part of for the past four decades. It is a great opportunity for us to support the grassroots of the National Hunt industry through this initiative.”

Can any horse put Samcro under pressure in points?

THERE have been few performances in the open division in the past decade to usurp what Samcro (121+) produced at Tinahely on Sunday. The former three-time Grade 1 winner was able to dominate proceedings from the front, appearing to enjoy the drop down in tempo from races such as the Savills Chase, which he was contesting 10 months ago.

There may be few open horses in the division that could get him under pressure if this level form can be maintained, but if one could manage to do just that, that could be the real litmus test for him.

Also at Tinahely, The Same (92+) was able dismiss his eight rivals with a similar level of authority. It was undoubtedly one of the more standout performances in the younger-age maidens over the course of the opening few weeks of the season, whilst Legacy Of Dreams (86+) could be one to note in a handicap hurdle after defeating an 80-rated hurdler by a double-digit winning margin.

Impression

At Portrush, Zefiro Dodville (92+) had to be tough in a strongly run race where it seemed as though the tempo was maintained throughout to ensure there were few hiding places for a four-year-old on his debut.

A time 17 seconds quicker than the card’s average confirms that impression. The winner came off best in a three-way tussle at the last fence to win and looks a smart recruit for the Brian Acheson (Robcour) team.

In contrast, Vaucelet (108+) had to make his own running in an open that turned into something of a sprint which would not have played to his strengths.

Commendably he got the job done after a decent test from two rivals who should win opens of their own this season, while Faith Loving (96+) bounced back to form on his return.

That was his fourth victory in the sphere leaving him to face stiffer tests in open company now. However. he is worth another try in maiden hunter chase company.