THIS year we had two horses win 13 open races each, which meant each won over €17,000 in win prize money alone. It is more than many horses under rules win in a career.

It did bring a wonderful end to the season, the battle between Longhouse Music and Kruzhlinin to become champion point-to-pointer. That both ran 15 times for 13 wins and two seconds each meant that a tie was a just and honourable outcome.

All credit to trainers Sam Curling and Gordon Elliott for keeping the horses sound with undiminished enthusiasm. It was unusual to see that, between them, the two horses were ridden by nine different riders, with two O’Neills – Barry and Lisa – riding both horses to win.

Their dominance, particularly in late season, did lead to some dissatisfaction from others who felt that they were not getting a look-in. Such was the hammer-and-tongs battle between the two protagonists that, from the start of April, each ran in eight point-to-points without ever meeting each other.

Not that they met many others anyway; in 15 runs Kruzhlinin finished in front of 67 opponents, while the mare only had 54 behind her. Many of these beaten horses were repeat losers and surprisingly few lost to both.

Had the two champions not been engaging in this epic duel there would have been more opportunities for the lesser lights but I, for one, would not like to see a limit on the number of wins reimposed.

However, it would seem that there is room in the last two months of the season for conditional open races, for instance, confined to horses who have not won more than four races in the season.

There is certainly an opportunity for enterprising committees to come up with consolation open ideas.

It has been good to see a number of initiatives where a bonus has been added to existing prize money. We were already used to the Gain mares final at Ballynoe but this season saw three more races benefit.

All-weather racing hurting point-to-points

IT is disappointing to see that the older horse maidens have not been particularly well supported over the last few months. One of the reasons for this must be the rise of all-weather flat racing, both in Ireland and in other countries.

Formerly, a four- or five-year-old horse which had not made its mark on the flat (on turf) would be sold to go jumping but, now with so many more opportunities to compete for fairly decent prize money on the all-weather tracks, it makes sense to keep these horses going with less risk of injury and the interval between races in most cases greatly reduced.

It was good to see initiative used with the incentive of a decent prize bonus for older maidens at the start of the season but we will have to wait probably another two or three years to see if it works.

This season the bonus race was held in Cork – an area which has seen a very sad decline in the number of hunters certificates issued. Might it not be a bad idea to rotate this through the four regions in future?

At least in Ireland we are moving with the times and still providing an important lower tier of racing. Unfortunately I found on my trip to England recently that while they can still attract crowds, there is a severe shortage of horses and the racing lacked a lot of the competitiveness we have over here.

Novice riders deserve support

IT was a good season for novice riders. The introduction of more races confined to claiming riders caused some discussion early in the autumn and perhaps too many of the pre-Cheltenham qualifying opens were in this category. However, in the last half of the spring session it was noticeable how many novice riders were getting mounts across the cards.

These young riders, both male and female, are, more often than not, as keen as mustard to make their mark and it is good to see so many handlers willing to give the best of them their chances. I know many will join the ranks of middle-order riders who win between five and 15 races a season but these are popular and well respected and an integral part of our sport. A few will get to a higher rung on the ladder, either contesting championships or turning professional; good for them and may our sport support each new influx.

Race distances look inaccurate

AT the beginning of May I made my first visit to the Mid-Antrims track at Broughshane and it was a landmark for me as it was the 200th different track I have visited in Ireland.

Some good ones have gone and others have come, with some improved tremendously over the years. One thing I have noticed this year is that some courses are returning race times of six minutes exactly or less, even on not particularly fast ground.

This suggests that the distance cannot possibly be a full three miles; therefore either track measurement is not being carried out properly or, if this is now acceptable, a true measured distance should be given officially.

Returning to Broughshane, the concluding winners of two race proved an above-average contest.

In what proved to be the fastest race of the day, the already two-time winner Royal Drumlee landed a third successive victory.

That he, a six-year-old, sold for £100,000 at the next Cheltenham sale was, by today’s standards, noteworthy and he was probably even then well-bought.

It will be interesting to follow his future career which will be continued in the USA.