Point-to-Point Focus

Catch up on the latest point-to-point focus column, which appeared in the Racing Post on Friday, Nov 29.

It was good to see Garry Clermont and Mervyn Woodward reach the winner’s enclosure at recent meetings.

Garry (a horse) won a maiden hurdle at Ludlow, while Merv (a human) rode the inaugural winner at a new venue in Devon called Dunsmore. Each win expressed the best of two areas of British point-to-pointing.

The Ludlow win paid a compliment to the sport because earlier this year four-year-old Garry Clermont (pictured below) won a maiden point-to-point at Bangor on debut and was subsequently sent by trainer Fran Nimmo to Tattersalls’ Cheltenham February Sale where he was knocked down for £150,000 to Jonjo O’Neill. This was the conclusion to a classic pinhook, for Garry Clermont had been bought for €24,000 at Goffs’ Landrover Stores Sale the previous June with the aim of running in a point-to-point to advertise his talents before being reoffered.

Garry Clermont and his former trainer Fran Nimmo at Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale before his 150k sale to Jonjo O’Neill

You might well ask why O’Neill did not save money by buying the horse as a store, but he could fill 100 boxes with unbroken equines and find a handful prove talented. It makes economic sense to stand back while others sort the wheat from the chaff and then offer them a profit for a horse who appears useful.

This pinhooking journey in which stores become pointers is more active in Ireland than in Britain, but it is growing in the UK, and the sport is getting behind it by encouraging people to race four-year-olds. This is bringing new faces, both human and equine, to the party.

The encouragement includes putting on point-to-point Flat races, which were introduced in January 2017 and have grown from a single event in the first year to 19 such contests (many of which will be run in divisions) this season. In order to keep numbers manageable such races are now restricted to four- and five-year-olds.

Reintroduced this season are maiden races over jumps for four- and five-year-olds. When last tried in limited numbers a few years ago the horse population aged four was too small, resulting in thin entries and fields. Now back, they have been placed into a series of 13 races sponsored by auctioneers Tattersalls Cheltenham and Goffs UK. The first race takes place at Larkhill on Sunday, and an entry of 11 is a fair start at this early stage.

So why did Woodward’s Dunsmore win prove so pleasing? A heavy goods vehicle driver who transports hay and straw around the West Country, Woodward, 41, reckoned his victory on Macca’s Stowaway (pictured in headline photo) was his 50^th in points and under Rules, trailing back to a debut success in 2000 on Spirit Of Life at now-defunct Bishopsleigh.

He keeps his sporting aspirations low, but when asked about the appeal of riding in points, he said: “It’s a bit of fun – and you get lazy sitting in an armchair.” That simple philosophy is one that motivates thousands of people to ride, train, own or groom pointers, and is a long way removed from the commercial side of the sport.

British pointing is learning to accommodate tradition and innovation, which is not easy when they pull in different directions, but victories for horses like Garry Clermont and riders such as Mervyn Woodward is evidence that you can blend the differences.