THE eight Grade 1s of this weekend’s Dublin Racing Festival will not be able to overshadow what is traditionally one of the most anticipated afternoons in the point-to-point season, as tomorrow, the wraps are taken off the first of this year’s new crop of four-year-old point-to-pointers.

As has become the norm now, it is Ballinaboola and Bellharbour who have the honour of hosting the first four-year-old maiden races of the new calendar year, and the strong entry that both races have received illustrates the eagerness amongst both owners and handlers alike to hit the ground running.