Cheltenham is out for our top amateur riders
Wexford’s key role as a National Hunt production hub
THERE WAS bad news this week for a number of top Wexford riders when it was confirmed that amateurs have been been barred from the Cheltenham Festival, due to start in two weeks’ time on March 16.
And there was no good news for the beleagured point-to-point sector either as the resumption of racing will not even be considered until April 5 under the Government’s latest plans.
There is no guarantee there will be a green light even then, giving very little time to get a run into all the valuable horses that have been stacked up at yards all over the county in preparation for the sales season.
Amateurs have not been allowed to ride in Britain since early January and hopes of returning for the Cheltenham Festival were dashed this week when the British Government’s roadmap to recovery and the British Horseracing Authority agreed that March 29 would be the earliest date for them to resume.
Among the Wexford riders to be hit will be Jamie Codd, ten times a Festival winner; Barry O’Neill, champion point-to-point rider for the last four years; Rob James, Harley Dunne and others. Top riders like Patrick Mullins, who had a prize book of rides lined up, and Derek O’Connor will also lose out.
Only a handful of current professional riders can compete with Codd’s Cheltenham haul.
In his 20 years in the saddle since his first successes in late 2001, he has ridden over 1,300 winners in total between track and point-to-point. It is extraordinary and defies all logic that he and other top riders are not allowed to compete on the biggest stage in jumps racing.
However, Codd was reasonably philisophical, and he scotched any suggestion that he might turn professional to get around the ban. He has always ridden as an amateur and has no intention of changing now.
This is an option Patrick Mullins is said to be considering but the racing authorities may not be too kindly disposed to that idea.
‘It’s hugely disappointing for the amateurs in the UK and for us qualified riders in Ireland not to be there, but this is a government decision in very difficult circumstances and there was very little that we could do. I was preparing myself for this. I thought we might be in trouble,’ Codd said.
‘Cheltenham is a big deal and it’s a few days of the year that we can showcase our qualified riders on the big stage... we’re in strange times, and there’s a lot of people worse off than us.’
Codd has twice beaten the professionals in the Championship Bumper, on Fayonagh and Envoi Allen, and he would have been in with a great chance again this year on Gordon Elliott’s highly-impressive Sir Gerhard.
‘He looks very exciting and he would have been a great ride to have, but that’s life. We just have to get on with it,’ he said.
‘It’s been a long time since I’ve missed Cheltenham and it’s been a very lucky hunting ground for me. With the restrictions that are in place, I don’t think I’ll be travelling over. I’ll probably sit at home and cheer Gordon’s horses on from there,’ he concluded.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s address on Tuesday did not have any good news either for the point-to-point fraternity, which has been locked down since January 13. Apart from the big items like re-opening schools and childcare, minimal changes were made to the Level 5 restrictions and lifting the ban will not even be considered until April 5 at the earliest.
It’s quite possible that no relief will be forthcoming until the following review in May and that will leave just a few weeks until the usual end to the point-to-point season.
It will be impossible in that time to run and showcase the hundreds of expensive horses that have been kept fine-tuned at yards all over the country.
It is essential that these horses get sold on to make room for the new intake and generate the cash to pay for those replacements.
That’s the way the system works and major disruption could create real logjams that will have very serious implications for everybody, from the breeders onwards.
Some point-to-point handlers have been trying to run horses at track meetings but an awful lot of those have fallen victim to the bad weather and there are already massive entries for the suitable races.
Seán Doyle of the hugely influential Monbeg operation at Ballindaggin has been preparing 40 four-year-olds and ten fiveyear-olds for the vitally important point-to-point maidens which should be in full flow at this time – and his brothers Donnchadh and Cormac would have more than that again between them.
Seán did not beat around the bush: ‘We’re hanging on by the skin of our teeth,’ he told the Racing Post.
‘Point-to-points are essential and it is vital that they return as soon as possible.’
He appealed for a definite date to be set to end the uncertainty and was hoping the racing authorities could create more opportunities for all in the business.
Horse Racing Ireland came up with a response on Friday, announcing five additional fixtures including one at Wexford on Saturday, March 20.
That and meetings at Punchestown (March 15), an all-bumper card over varying distances, and Tipperary (March 24), are for horses eligible to run in pointto-points and holders of pointto-point handlers’ permits may enter and run horses at them. Fairyhouse (Friday, March 5) and Navan (March 22) will be mostly maiden hurdles.
Brian Kavanagh, HRI Chief Executive, said they were very aware of the pressures on those in the point-to-point community and these extra fixtures will provide some additional opportunities.
He hopes that things improve enough for point-to-point to resume fully after April 5 ‘because of the vital role it plays in National Hunt racing, and its importance to the rural economy’.
I HAVE been banging the drum here for quite a while about the importance of Wexford’s role in the point-to-point industry as a production hub for top class National Hunt horses.
There has been a string of recent successes in important races in Ireland and Britain by horses that began their careers in various Wexford point-to-point yards.
Clondaw Castle won the biggest race of the week at Kempton on Saturday, the £75k Close Brothers handicap chase, and this one was a graduate of the Mick Goff academy at Clondaw, Ferns – one of many horses running in Britain and Ireland bearing Goff’s ‘Clondaw’ brand.
The horse won his maiden at Glenbane in Tipperary, and was sold on to trainer Tom George in England. He has won a bumper, two hurdles and five chases worth £180k and is bound for Cheltenham.
Secret Investor (14/1) and Bryony Frost won the Grade 2 Denman Chase at Newbury for Paul Nicholls. The horse began his career in the care of Donnchadh Doyle in 2016 when winning his debut point-to-point four-year-old maiden. Doyle had bought him in a year earlier for €38,000 but following his win he sold him on to Paul Nicholls for £175,000.
Full Time Score ran his pointto-point maiden for Seán Doyle of Monbeg on February 18, 2018 and though only second he was sold on to Chris Jones and went to Henry De Bromhead who has been patient with him.
At Fairyhouse on Monday of last week, he duly won with some ease under Rachael Blackmore.
Colin Bowe recently had the unusual distinction of having two of his former point-to-point horses fighting out the finish of the Scottish Supreme Novices Hurdle at Musselburgh.
Winner was Bareback Jack, completing a hat-trick of wins for Brian Hughes and Donald McCain. He was sold to McCain for £70,000 after an impressive point-to-point maiden win last February.
Second in the hurdle was Tommy’s Oscar who took a while to win his point-to-point before eventually getting his head in front at Loughrea
in Co. Galway.
He was sold on to Ian and Ann Hamilton who got second in a bumper and then three wins on the trot before being bested by Bareback Jack.
Velvet Elvis won a rated novice hurdle at Thurles a couple of weeks ago under Darragh O’Keeffe for trainer Tom Gibney.
Colin Bowe bought him in May 2019 at Goffs spring sale for a modest £11,000; after he won his point-to-point maiden by a clear 20 lengths at Nenagh last February, he sold him on for £95,000.
At Cheltenham last year three Colin Bowe graduates were successful – Envoi Allen, who won his maiden at Ballinaboola and was sold on for £400,000; Samcro, who won his maiden at Monksgrange, Rathnure, and was then purchased by Gordon Elliott for £335k; Ferny Hollow, winner of the Champion bumper for Willie
Mullins, won his point-to-point maiden at Knockenard and then was sold on to Mullins for £300k. J.J. Bowe had bought him eight months earlier for €38k.
Monkfish, winner of the Albert Bartlett Novices Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival last March and several Grade 1 races since, with Paul Nolan’s Latest Exhibition second to him three times, was handled by Cormac Doyle, the youngest of the three Monbeg brothers, when he won his maiden point-to-point at Stowlin in Galway.
He had been sold as a foal for just €12,500 in 2014; Monbeg bought him as a three-year-old three years later for €36,000, and within a month of his points win he was sold on to Willie Mullins for Rich Ricci for a cool £235,000 Stg.
Bravemansgame won the Challow Hurdle having won his only point-to-point at the Lingstown March meeting in 2019, when handled by Donnchadh Doyle who had bought him for €48k.
Within the week he was knocked down to Nicholls for £370k. Colin Bowe graduates Star Gate and Glancing Queen were second and third in the Challow.
This is only a sample to once again give a flavour of the significance Co. Wexford point-to-point holds in the National Hunt world. It is in serious danger of being badly damaged by the ongoing lockdown.