FOLLOWING an absence of three difficult months, point-to-point racing is set to return in just seven days’ time, albeit in a hybrid form with fixtures being staged on racecourses and catering for four- and five-year-old horses only.

This compromise solution will be key to reducing the long-term effects of an even more prolonged absence of the sport which would have had significant repercussions for many aspects of the National Hunt breeding and bloodstock industry across rural Ireland.