TWO local trainers who travelled further afield than Taylorstown last weekend in search of point-to-point winners were Noel Hynds and Warren Ewing, both of whom were rewarded for their efforts.

Ewing, who struck first, did so on Saturday at Stradbally where Shane Wilson and Jamesy Hagan’s Jay Bee Why recorded his second win of the campaign in the 12-runner open.

Also placed five times in six other starts between the flags, the nine-year-old Yeats gelding was due to be sold as Lot 846 at Goffs UK’s Spring Sale in Doncaster on Thursday.

Carrying Hynds’s own colours, Coolberrin Hill’s win came all the way down at Ballindenisk where he landed the Tattersalls NH five and six-year-old geldings’ maiden by a neck. The Daigh Rooney-bred 2019 Court Cave bay was third on his previous two starts.

We spotted two locally-bred winners in British point-to-points last Sunday. The former George Stewart-trained Step Back, a 14-year-old Indian River gelding bred by Patrick Macken, landed the Level 3 older horses’ conditions race at Edgcote shortly before the Barney O’Hare-bred Buzzard Trix, a 10-year-old Court Cave gelding, won the Level 1 conditions race at Tabley.

O’Hare and McParlan combine for victory

THE disrupted Northern region point-to-point season reached its conclusion last Saturday at Taylorstown where, already assured of the regional riders’ title, Noel McParlan added to his tally by landing the opening Derrylecka Bedding Centre four-year-old mares’ maiden on the newcomer Smile Back.

Trained by Mark O’Hare for his wife Sara and bred by Neville Reid, the Workforce bay was sold as Lot 471 at the Goffs UK Spring Sale in Doncaster on Wednesday.

Her three-year-old Libertarian half-brother comes up as Lot 122 at the May Store Sale at Tattersalls Ireland next Thursday when he will be the last of a four-strong consignment from Hillcrest Stables.

The amazing Winged Leader, trained for John Hegarty and Jenny O’Kane by David Christie, recorded his ninth successive victory of the season in the open.

Myleno, with his FR suffix, prevented a clean sweep for Irish-bred horses on the six-race card by landing the concluding Philip McCabe Quantity Surveyor winners of three but this meant the local season ended with a local success thanks to trainer Patrick Turley and former eventer Darragh Hanlon, owner/rider of the six-year-old.

Home racefans well catered for

NORTHERN racegoers worried about their carbon footprint don’t have to travel too far to meetings this time of year as, following last evening’s fixture at Downpatrick, Down Royal stages a meeting next Friday, May 31st.

BoyleSports are title sponsor of the card which features the €40,000 His Majesty’s Plate over two miles, 43 yards.

Run on June 23rd last year, the listed contest was won by the Joseph O’Brien-trained Powerful Aggie. The gates open at 3.30pm for a 5.30pm start.