THIS week point-to-pointing has unfortunately found itself back where it did not want to be as insurance cover threatens to interrupt the schedule of fixtures for the second season in succession.

Like it was last season, there is a small level of comfort for many of the sports participants that fixtures in Northern Ireland and on the Cork and Waterford circuit remain unaffected by the current difficulties.

This allows for the season to be completed, irrespective of the outcome of the current efforts that remain ongoing to secure the necessary insurance cover which would allow the five fixtures that could potentially be impacted in the weeks to come to proceed without interruption.

However, this latest insurance challenge serves as a stark reminder that the threat of potential future insurance-related interruptions cannot be allowed to continue to linger in the background of a sport which has become so key to the wider National Hunt sector in this country.

Just last month hunt committees feared that fixtures on the final weekend of March would be affected by the insurance policy expiring on the eve of fixtures, only for a short-term policy extension to be secured and the fixtures took place without any interruption. This cannot continue to be the case.

Point-to-pointing has grown to become big business. Last season the total value of point-to-pointers sold at public auction reached a record sum of over £34 million (€38.6 million), and confidence that a full programme of fixtures will take place in the season’s ahead is key to giving point-to-point owners and handlers the comfort that they require to begin the cycle of reinvestment for 2024.

The process of restocking is set to being with the sales in Doncaster and Fairyhouse next month.

Securing a July 1st or similar mid-summer renewal date for the insurance cover has to be a key priority in order to achieve it.

Such a date would allow those involved with managing the insurance policy the necessary breathing room to react to any future problems should they arise, without the possibility of any potential disruption to the point-to-point calendar as we have witnessed over the past 18 months.

The key to avoiding any future disruption must surely lie in further bolstering the National Hunt Steeplechase Point-to-Point and Field Sports Insurance Programme.

Insurance has proven to be a growing headache for many other sporting and adventure pursuits, yet the likes of gun clubs have been able to utilise the National Association of Regional Game Councils compensation fund as its insurance provider.

That fund was set up in 1984 and has gone from strength to strength in the 39 years since, providing protection for members up to the sum of €10 million.

The money that they have put into this fund has given them the security that other sports encountering insurance difficulties at present, such as motorcycle racing, do not have.

Point-to-pointing is an industry with money flowing around within it. If all sectors of the sport and wider stakeholders contributed, it likely offers the greatest opportunity of mirroring the gun club’s compensation fund, and crucially providing the security for the sport that is so key.

Put Far From Over in your notebook

THE name Honeysuckle fittingly adorned the four-year-old fillies’ maiden that she had won in Dromahane five years earlier and, like that great mare, the 2023 victor Bellas Bridge (83+) also made a winning debut.

Strongly pressed to the line in a race dominated by newcomers, she showed a game attitude to prevail in that tussle as the pair pulled 18 lengths clear of their rivals.

Fortunate Man (94+) impressed in the geldings’ equivalent and, having been confidently produced to challenge at the penultimate fence, he was certainly not short of gears as he quickened smartly from what is likely another talented individual in Ghost Hunter.

At Tattersalls, the four-year-old mares’ maiden was run at a decent gallop yet, despite that, the field remained quite tightly grouped approaching the penultimate fence. Tareze (83+) had the more potent turn of foot off the home bend and she was always holding her rivals at bay.

Stradbally is a proven source of good ground performers and Red Hugh (88+) looks to be just that. He had offered plenty of promise behind a subsequent Grade 2 winner on his debut at the beginning of the season, and has built on that since.

Meanwhile, the Irish debut of Far From Over (101+) cannot go without reference after he defeated two very capable benchmarks in the division by a wide margin. This performance warrants serious respect.