JOSEPH O’Brien plans to scale back his riding commitments next season as he prepares to saddle a team of horses in point-to-points starting this autumn.

As revealed by The Irish Field last week, O’Brien has been granted handler status by the Turf Club and he is in the process of securing a trainers’ licence. He plans to continue dividing his time between riding out for his father Aidan at Ballydoyle and overseeing the training of a National Hunt team at Owning, Piltown in Co Kilkenny.

In a statement this week, Joseph O’Brien said: “I have been looking after the jumpers and some flat horses for Dad in Owning Hill for the past number of months and have really enjoyed it.

“I ride work in Ballydoyle every morning and that is something I will continue doing long term.

“I don’t intend to race-ride as much next year but I will combine riding work in Ballydoyle and looking after the horses in Owning Hill.

“I am also looking forward to having some point-to-point runners in the future. We have a nice team of horses under all codes at Owning Hill, both our own and for outside owners. I’m looking forward to the upcoming seasons.”

Minella For Me, an unraced five-year-old son of King’s Theatre, is among the entries for a maiden at Loughrea tomorrow, with O’Brien down as the handler and John Nallen as the owner.

Nallen has trained a small string of horses from the O’Brien-owned property in Piltown for the last six years. He said: “Basically, the operation isn’t changing. I’m just going from being a permit holder to being an owner and the horses will run in Joseph’s name. There’s around 10 point-to-pointers to run during the autumn and spring and they’re all horses that will hopefully be sold at some stage.