Wexford dominates as axe falls POINT-TO-POINT
THE point-to-point season for 2019-2020 was formally ended prematurely last Thursday, as predicted here two weeks ago, and it was inevitable after the decision on the previous day to close the National Hunt track season a month early, losing out on the Irish Grand National and the Punchestown Festival.
The impact on the sport and business will be very severe. A large number of staff layoffs now seem inescapable as most horses will be let out to grass for four or five months.
Fifty-five point-to-point meetings had been held all over the country, and 48 were left to be run off by the June Bank Holiday Monday.
Worst hit in Wexford is the Bree Hunt which had meetings scheduled for Monksgrange, Rathnure, on March 29 and April 19, and the Island Hunt meeting at Courtown was to be run last Sunday.
It is hoped to run a beefed up autumn schedule which normally goes from early October to early December, but it may be extended this year.
An awful lot of expensive four-year-olds will be aimed at what should be an enlarged programme of maiden races in those months.
The championships will be awarded on the tables after the final day of racing on March 15.
Barry O’Neill took his fourth riders’ title in a row with 42 winners, over half being for Colin Bowe; the places were filled by Jamie Codd (22), Derek O’Connor (19) and Rob James (17).
O’Neill is now on 591 career winners, and the early end to the season surely denied him reaching the 602 mark to become the third most successful jockey in point-to-point history, behind O’Connor and Codd. His remarkable 32% strike rate was his best ever.
He also won the Northern regional title for the second time with 14 winners, and he took his fourth Eastern title, sharing it with Jamie Codd this time, on 14 winners each. Codd also won the Seniors’ title.
Rob James, who capped his year with victory in the Kim Muir at the Cheltenham Festival on Milan Native, won the Western title, ending the eleven-year reign of Derek O’Connor. A rising star, Jordan Gainford, was third in the Under-21 section.
Colin Bowe, as usual, heads the handlers’ table with 29, with six others from Wexford in the top ten. He was winning his sixth in a row and his eighth in total, a remarkable period of domination. He passed the 350 career winner milestone a couple of months ago.
Denis Murphy, The Ballagh, was second on 18; Seán Thomas and Donnchadh Doyle shared fifth (with ten each), from Ellen Doyle , Baltimore Stables, Coolgarrow (nine), Michael Goff (eight) and Michael Murphy, Redbridge Stables, Duncormick (six).