Pointers for the future

WHEN EDMUND BLAKE challenged his neighbour Cornelius O’Callaghan to a race across country from St John’s Church in Buttevant to St Mary’s Church in Doneraile, County Cork, neither man could have possibly imagined what the four and a half mile match would foretell.

That 1752 contest is credited as being the first recorded steeplechase run in Ireland and laid down the blueprint for point-topoint racing, which was officially recognised in 1889 and is now a multi-million pound industry and an important proving ground for young NH horses.

Recent times have ushered in a boom period for the commercial point-to-point sector, particularly in Ireland, and there is now a strong element of success breeding success.

High levels of racecourse performance from point-to-point graduates fuels increasing demand – and prices – at boutique sales, which in turn gives the sport’s trainers greater financial firepower to restock on raw materials.

Indeed, 89 former Irish point-to-point graduates won 113 Graded races during the truncated jumps 2020-21 season. This number was headed by 27 Grade 1 victories achived by household NH names such as Bob Olinger, Envoi Allen, Honeysuckle, Minella Indo, Monkfish and Shishkin.

Of course, high achieving former pointers are not a new phenomenon, nor is the sport operating on a commercial basis. However, there is no mistaking that the landscape has changed dramatically in recent years, although the catalyst for the current situation came from far beyond the flags and fences of the point-to-point field.

While the last seven years have seen an acceleration in the flow of former point-to-pointers making up into Grade 1-winning jumpers, Richard Pugh, founder of p2p.ie and Tattersalls Ireland’s director of horsesin-training sales, says the wheels have been in motion for the current model since at least 2001.

The advent of the internet was the first building block in a new era for point-to-pointing. But not because of any direct impact on NH racing initially, rather that ready access to form, pedigrees, race replays and statistics transformed the Flat horse into a global commodity.

This meant that the kind of Flat performer, who once would have been tested over jumps, is now being sold for big money to race abroad, and with NH owners increasingly priced out of the market they had no alternative but to look elsewhere.

“It’s not a coincidence that we won’t see the likes of horses such as Royal Gait, Kribensis and Istabraq run over hurdles because the global market for those horses started making them very expensive for the NH owner,” says Pugh.

“It’s supply and demand; supply deteriorated from the Flat and the NH man, whether he cared or not about point-to-pointing, really didn’t have a choice.” This shift was recognised by the BHA, who, in its 2015 jump racing review, noted that Irish point-to-points had overtaken Flat racing as the most popular source of previously raced NH recruits, writing: “The source of horses into jump racing has shifted significantly, with far fewer horses having their first run on the Flat compared to three-five years ago. The downturn in the number of Flat horses going jumping has created a reliance on Irish point-to-point.”

As the internet was disrupting the market for Flat performers, the point-to-point season was also being altered by an insidious external factor: foot-and-mouth disease.

It was in 2001, when the outbreak led to the traditional spring point-to-point season being cancelled, that the modern day autumn campaign was developed. Changes that were brought in as a quick fix proved so popular they were soon adopted on a permanent basis.

Prior to foot-and-mouth even the most renowned handlers tended to earn their living from other agricultural endeavours, training point-to-pointers as a sideline. But the introduction of an autumn season opened point-to-pointing up to a new world of commercial opportunities.

“Previous to [foot-and-mouth] you had people who were relatively self sufficient, or even wealthy in their own right, and as an additional layer of their business they had a point-to-pointer,” says Pugh. “Now there is enough substance and enough longevity to the season that they can frame a business around point-to-pointing.

“You can cash pre-Christmas or post-Christmas as the season goes on long enough. So at the same time that point-to-pointers were becoming more sought after because Flat horses were harder to get, a new generation of trainers could see a business model set up around point-to-pointing.” So the demand for point-to-pointers was created by a shortfall in Flat recruits and the supply was fuelled by a recalibrated, more commercially friendly season, and the missing link in the chain between buyers and sellers was hit upon through the emergence of boutique sales.

In 2009, Brightwells began hosting auctions at Cheltenham and the select sale calendar has grown almost exponentially since, with Goffs and Tattersalls, who bought Brightwells in 2015, each hosting a busy calendar of events that bring a year-round supply of point-to-pointers with recent form to market.

While point-to-pointers had previously been traded privately by agents out in the field, Pugh says the increased transparency of a public auction, along with some sensational racecourse results, has underpinned a veritable explosion in prices.

“Now that these select sales are here buyers can put their hand on the horse’s leg, look in his eye, walk and trot him and buy into the process and not just take somebody’s word on it,” reports Pugh. “That isn’t to say people will always pick a better horse, but it’s that if you don’t, you still feel that you had every chance to do so.”

Moreover, it is well known that data helps stimulate the marketplace and in December 2003 Pugh launched p2p.ie.

Although he rather modestly asserts that “If it wasn’t me it would’ve been someone else” who started the online service, the fact remains that the website is now an industry leading source of information that has brought Irish point-to-point form, stats and content to a wider audience than ever before.

Moreover, Pugh and p2p.ie were instrumental in Irish point-to-point form becoming a permanent fixture in leading racing publications, sales catalogues and race cards across Britain and Ireland.

“I thought racecards were a big one,” says Pugh. “So when there’s racing at Leopardstown and Willie Mullins finishes second in the bumper and sees that the horse who beat him wasn’t a debutant but had won at Dromahane, it might help focus his mind.”

In summarising the chain of events that shaped the current point-to-point landscape, Pugh is keen to stress just how big a part serendipity played, saying: “

, so people who already had an opinion now had more of an ‘in’.

“There was no joined-up thinking though, I wasn’t a visionary any more than the fella who put the autumn season in to help catch up from foot-and-mouth. It’s just that a lot of things happened in the world that all bounced in the favour of point-to-pointing.”

WHILE THE IRISH point-to-point industry quickly regained its momentum after a COVID-enforced shutdown, a new existential threat loomed over the sector as 2021 neared its end. A number of insurance providers left the equine market after some multi-million Euro payouts, and with Brexit red tape compounding the situation, the hunts, who run the point-to-points, were unable to obtain the necessary cover to host race meetings.

However, after much heavy lifting behind the scenes, including from politicians who raised the plight of the point-to-point community in the Dáil Éireann, the Irish parliament, a deal was brokered that sees point-to-points covered for a €1,250 premium.

“A lot of work was done by a lot of people who pulled together a complex enough package that allowed the point-to-pointing to continue,” says Pugh. “It’s now on the hunts to stump up and pay this amount of money. It’s a leap but I hope the hunting community is able to stomach that going forward, and that we as an industry are able to support that as and when we’re needed.

“We hope that’s behind us and there’s no more bumps on that road. If there’s demand for racehorses, and we’ve seen during the pandemic that luxury items are sought after, then point-to-pointing has a good chance of providing what the market needs. “I’m not optimistic and many times over the last seven years I’ve seen horses and sales hitting levels where I’ve thought ‘woah, I’m not sure it can get bigger than this’ but it’s always gone up another level.”

Pugh says the thing most likely to change the dynamic in Irish point-to-points is the British point-to-point, which has already produced the likes of the Queen Mother Champion Chase (G1) winner Energumene and Sky Pirate, as UK trainers begin to mirror the Irish model.

“There are some excellent handlers and some wonderful racecourses in Britain that we’d be jealous of over here,” he says.

“And there’s no logic that dictates that if Faugheen or Honeysuckle ran around Chaddesley Corbett or Barbury Castle that they would be any better or any worse.

“Those horses are going to emerge and I’m almost seeing now what we were seeing in 2005 in Ireland – two, three or four good winners appearing every Saturday. I don’t see that as competition for Ireland though, I think that keeps the brand of point-topointing strong.”