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Since Monday’s announcement by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) cancelling all remaining hunter chases, including the Stratford Hunter Chase Evening, the Point-to-Point Authority (PPA) has been working closely with the BHA Veterinary team to put in place protocols to ensure pointing goes ahead and minimises the risk of transmissions.

Paul Miller, Chief Executive of the PPA said;

“It’s been a busy few days, that’s for sure. We’ve been working closely with the BHA Regulatory and BHA Veterinary teams to keep things running as smoothly as possible while minimising the risk of spreading flu. Unfortunately, this did involve the very difficult decision to stop horses from coming over from Ireland to run at the Welsh International. We discussed different options but couldn’t risk spreading the virus to Ireland. It’s not ideal, but as a result of Mondays announcement we held entries for all fixtures open until 8am on Tuesday morning which resulted in an extra 30 entries being received”

Equine Influenza is highly contagious, and people across every equine sport must play their part in preventing the spread of the virus further. Reported case numbers are over twice as high as they were when racing went into lock-down in 2019.

As a result a number of protocols have been introduced for the remainder of the 2025/26 point-to-point season.

Miller continued “Fortunately, the rise in case numbers and the hunter chase cancellations have come at the end of our season, and things will hopefully be back to normal for the start of our 2026/27 season. The cancellation of Stratford’s Hunter Chase Evening was without doubt a particularly hard blow for our participants”

New protocols for remaining point-top-point fixtures:

  • Horses coming to the Welsh International at Ffynnon Druidion from Ireland will NOT be allowed at the upcoming fixture on Friday (22nd May). Keepers concerned have already been contacted. This it to avoid possible transmission resulting in the virus being spread to Ireland.
  • No horses other than FULLY VACCINATED POINTERS intending to run on the day will be allowed entry to a fixture – this means NO travelling companion horses or nannies.
  • HORSE CATCHERS passports and vaccination status will be sent to the meetings Senior Vet four days ahead of the fixture date to ensure vaccination compliance, with the micro-chip being double checked on the day.
  • PONY RACING scheduled for the two fixtures at Chaddesley Corbett and Umberleigh WILL go ahead. Pony Racing follows the same BHA vaccination schedule as pointers. The Pony Racing Authority will be checking passports and vaccination status compliance ahead of the fixture.

This weekend sees 4 fixtures and the culmination of the National Championships.

Tickets for the national Point-to-Point Awards night at Cheltenham are now on sale here https://gbpointing.co.uk/shop/