Racing Post P2P Focus

A chance to catch last week’s Racing Post point-to-point focus column, which was published on Friday, January 8.

Start, stop, start, stop sums up Britain’s point-to-point season, which came to a halt for the second time as national lockdowns fell across the United Kingdom.

A resumption on the weekend of February 20 and 21 is a possibility if the government’s review of the situation, which is planned for February 10, results in a lessening of restrictions.

This is a deeply frustrating situation for the majority of point-to-point trainers and owners, for while the sport still has a number of do-it-yourself owner/trainers who take part for fun, the majority of horses are now in fee-charging yards. The people who run such establishments earn part or all of their living from training pointers with a view to running them in races. Being unable to do so is like telling a brick layer to keep their trowels and cement mixers polished, but not to lay bricks.

It is pointing’s description as ‘an amateur sport run by volunteers’ which is proving its downfall at present. That image, as colourful equestrian competition played out in green fields before crowds of picnickers, has served it well in the past, distinguishing it from racing under Rules and giving it a rural individuality that appeals to those who prefer Dingley to Doncaster.

Yet in truth point-to-pointing keeps evolving, and is more closely aligned to Jump racing than to its strictly amateur ethos of days gone by. In 2016 the requirement to hunt a horse to qualify it to run in point-to-points was dropped, one of several marked departures from the strictly amateur sport of yesteryear.

For now the point-to-point fraternity appears to be pinning hopes on an early resumption. “It’s too cold and wet to rough horses off even if we wanted to,” is a common theme. Nicky Tinkler, who trains pointers in Yorkshire, said: “We’ve stopped working horses, but we’re still cantering,” while Oxfordshire’s Claire Hardwick said: “I’m very lucky that owners I train for are keeping the faith, so I’m keeping horses on the go.”

Tinkler says Plan B, if pointing fails to resume, will be to run “four or five young horses in bumpers” after sending them to licensed yards. Tom Faulkner, who trains in South Wales, says his mother, Deborah, who has a permit, will convert that to a full licence. The drip, drip of horses out of the sport is but one long-term danger to its health, the other is the potential for a permanent loss of meetings.

Hunter chases in focus

One option for point-to-point trainers is to run their horse in hunters’ chases, but they are under discussion due to Covid’s influence.

Hunter chases have not been so crucial since foot and mouth closed pointing in 2001, but where do they fit in the elite and amateur sporting spheres? Simon Sherwood, clerk of the course at Ludlow, which is due to stage the first hunter chase of the British season on Thursday week, said: “We are 100 per cent supporting hunters’ chases if they are deemed possible by the British Horseracing Authority.”

Stratford’s Ilona Barnett is among those keen to keep hunter chases on licensed cards, as is Catterick’s Fiona Needham, who suspected there would be demand and has added an extra hunter chase to her course’s schedule.

Cheltenham hosted amateur combined with conditional jockey races at the October and November meetings, but clerk Simon Claisse said plans to stage hunter chases are “under consideration”. He said discussions will include altering conditions of entry for this season’s St James’s Place Foxhunter Chase if qualifying races, i.e. hunter chases and open point-to-points, cannot take place.

*It was subsequently announced that hunters’ chases would take place, but without amateur riders.