Bumper day of race action at point-to-point

It proved to be a very successful day and thankfully the weather improved dramatically as the week went on, drying up what had been a rather sodden course.

Unlike the unfortunate organisers of the Punchestown Festival in the South, which had torrential rain all through the week, Saturday was beautifully sunny and a perfect day to enjoy the racing.

Due to a lot of extremely hard work by the organising committee the day produced some very exciting and safe racing.

The first race was the Dennison Commercials Ltd Maiden Race for 4 year olds, and 15 horses battled it out with lucky number 13, Dreams of Theatre ridden by B. O’Neill, and owned and trained by Donnchadh Doyle, winning by a comfortable 6 lengths.

JP McKeown rode the second horse Four Shuck Men, also from the same Island country in Wexford, into 2nd place, well clear of Wilson Dennison’s Ballylagan.

The second race was the Sunstart Bakery Winners of Two and yet again the numbers 15 and 13 were the lucky ones as the same jockey, B. O’Neill, rode William Yorke’s Uppertown Hawk to another win for trainer Donnchadh Doyle from Wexford, in a very exciting finish a length from another Southern horse Norwich Flyer, with the Newry horse Better Back Bob in third.

At 3 o’clock the Albert Bartlett Maiden Race for 5 year old Geldings got underway with Ben Crawford exhibiting his excellent riding skills to steer Richard Gilchrist’s Court Appeal to a finish that had the crowd roaring as he beat Wilson Dennison’s Volio Vincente by a length, closely followed by Mr Stint three quarters of a length behind in third.

Next came the Open Lightweight Race sponsored by McBurney Transport where a delighted Forster Richardson saw his Sporting Pointers Syndicate’s Subaroo Blue win with, yet again, B. O’Neill on board. OneForTheRoadMac ridden by Ben Crawford came in a close second and Ben Brabazon on Sharekan in third.

The Diamond Bar, Ahoghill, were sponsors of the Maiden Race for 5 year old and upwards Mares and this was won by JJ Codd on C.B.Poots’s Little Luv in another exciting finish.

Young Jamie Sloan, a lad just embarking on his point-to-pointing career, was riding Mrs Judith Hamilton’s Knockan Breeze who was jumping like a stag and looked to have it in the bag, but a wide sweep round the bend gave Little Luv the chance to overtake and beat him into second in spite of a valiant attempt by Knockan Breeze to close the gap. B O’Neill on another Wexford horse Ounaben came 7 lengths behind in third.

The Aircore Maiden Race for 6 year old and upwards geldings was won by a horse from Galway, Tullan Strand with PB Collins aboard, well clear of JE Flynn on the Donegal horse Respectueux with the ever present B O’Neill in third on another Wexford horse Greenhall Lad.

The race committee are extremely grateful to all their sponsors and advertisers who make the day possible and also to the farmers who make hunting possible.

The day certainly seemed to be enjoyed by the punters judging by the noise and it was good to see all the horses and jockeys back safely even if not always together!

The new clerk of the course Katrina Mackie, who has also taken on a joint mastership of the hunt, should be very proud of her efforts and apart from a lot of chopping and changing of jockeys which gave the clerk of the scales, the endlessly patient Mr Hugh Ferguson, quite a few headaches, the day ran very smoothly.

Race sponsors were Dennison Commercials, Sunstart Bakery, Albert Bartlett and Sons, McBurney Transport, The Diamond Bar, Ahoghill, and Aircore. The Form Card and Race Cards were sponsored by Wilsons Auctions and the Gibson family, Tobermore Concrete provided the sand and the fences were sponsored by Abbey Upholsterers, Cunningham Covers, Doherty & Gray, H. Colvin & Son, Stephens Catering Equipment, McAllisters Butchers, James McNeill Stores, The Dunadry Hotel & Country Club, Grove Veterinary Surgeons, Tumbledown Bar, Hamilton Hunters. Topping Meats sponsored the Best Turned Out prizes, and James Kernohan sponsored the Race Reader.

The race committee would like to thank all those who worked so hard both on the day and for many days and weeks before and after, and were also extremely grateful that the weather was kind.

Finally they would like to thank the Higgins family for the use of their beautiful estate which provides such a lovely setting for this point-to-point.