On Thursday, February 16th, 2017 the record for an Irish point-to-pointer was set in the Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham Sale ring. It took £480,000 to secure Flemenshill from Wilson Dennison having won a point-to-point in a field 20 minutes drive from Dublin Airport. No runner from the race had ever run previously in public, ensuring the race could not be assessed with any level of knowledge about the depth of form, and being the only race over two and a half miles on the day, it was not even comparable on time to any other race.

The question must be asked – why? Why did Tom Malone, Alan and Ann Potts and Colin Tizzard decide to invest into an Irish point-to-pointer with such confidence?