LAST month’s Budget announcement brought disappointing news for Horse Racing Ireland, with its state funding for 2026 set to remain at the 2025 level of €79.3 million.

Other sporting bodies were more fortunate. The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) was one such organisation to benefit from the government pledging €3 million for what was described as ‘multi-annual funding’ for a new League of Ireland academy proposal.

In a pre-budget submission to government, the FAI had sought €4.45 million per annum for two years before an additional €8 million per year for the following five years.

This, it said, would generate up to 340 full and part-time positions with the value to the exchequer north of €20 million per year.

The relevance to point-to-pointing? Well, this proposal from the FAI is to develop an academy system within League of Ireland clubs around the country, to put in place a system that will develop young players who can then be sold to bigger clubs.

Effectively, the footballing equivalent of the role that point-to-pointing here has within the overall National Hunt racing eco-system.

Last year, HRI budgeted a spend of just under €2.8 million on point-to-pointing for 2025 to cover integrity costs, prize money, grants to committees, and insurance contributions.

Its own Deloitte report in 2023 estimated that point-to-pointing generated approximately £51 million (€60 million) in sales, €25 million in owners’ expenditure, and €2 million in racegoer expenditure.

That is a hefty annual return by comparison, and does pose the question whether point-to-pointing has been shortchanged?

Yes, a welcome prize money increase has been forthcoming this year, which has brought the value of races for older horses to the long-overdue figure of €2,000; however, what is next?

The FAI set out the funding demands it had for its academy structure across a seven-year period, yet we have never seen or heard of such a multi-year strategic plan existing for point-to-pointing.

This is not only in the area of prize money projections going forward, but also in relation to promoting the sport, and participation levels, in terms of the number of horses, riders and handlers competing between the flags.

This remains one area where a lack of action has remained frustratingly stagnant.

THE importance of the Irish point-to-point model in relation to the education and development of young horses was reinforced once again in recent weeks.

The British authorities are set to double down on their efforts to replicate the young horse maiden pathway that exists here within their own British point-to-point system.

The GB Pointing Bonus Young Horse Maiden Series is being described as ‘a landmark initiative to support young horse development within British point-to-pointing, strengthening connections with the sales market and supporting British racing and breeding’.

Funded by the Horserace Betting Levy Board and developed in conjunction with the BHA, the series is part of a wider £4 million-plus range of initiatives that was announced alongside the publication of their 2026 fixture list, aimed at increasing GB foal numbers and improving the number and quality of British-bred and trained horses.

The winners of selected young horse maidens will now become eligible for the GB Pointing bonus, and their connections will receive £25,000 if it is a British-bred horse that is trained in Britain and goes on to win a qualifying race under rules in the next two years, with a £15,000 bonus being awarded for horses bred elsewhere but who remain in training in Britain and also win their qualifying race in that time period.

The first of these maiden races takes place tomorrow in Lower Machen, as the British point-to-point season gets underway.

That two-and-a-half-mile race for horses aged four and five has attracted 15 entries, four of whom have previously run in an Irish point-to-point maiden. This is a familiar path, with British pointing providing an important outlet for Irish handlers to sell horses within a particular bracket.

Last season alone, 312 British point-to-point races were won by horses that had previously contested an Irish point-to-point, including their champion point-to-point horse, Inchidaly Robin.

The eight-year-old ran four times last season on these shores, including finishing fifth to last weekend’s Cork National winner, Lonesome Boatman, in a Dromahane open.

However, after pulling up in a winner-of-one contest at Bandon on March 2nd, he was sold to Britain, securing the first of what would be eight consecutive victories for Luke Price just under four weeks later en route to snatching the champion point-to-point horse crown.

IT has been a strong start for those riders in the infancy of their careers, with no fewer than seven riders having already secured their first point-to-point winner.

In fact, one rider has done so across each of the opening five weekends of action, with Tadhg Stafford and Nicole Lockhead Anderson the last to achieve that feat last weekend.

Eighteen-year-old Stafford combined with his sister Abbie’s Lawful Ruler at Lisronagh, whilst Aberdeen native Nicole Lockhead Anderson steered Longhouse Star to success in Rathcannon for her boss, Sam Curling.

Once again this season, all of those riders who secure their first point-to-point win will be put into a draw to receive a €500 cash prize courtesy of sponsors Dungar Quality Oats.

The prize was first introduced last season, with Dara O’Sullivan, who was one of 23 riders to secure a first point-to-point winner during the 2024/’25 campaign, having been drawn as the lucky winner.

Cormac Doyle domination continues

ALL three of last weekend’s venues featured four-year-old maiden races, with Majestic Horizon (91+) continuing a fine run of late within the age group for Cormac Doyle. The two-length success was his third four-year-old maiden victory within the space of eight days. Showing a great attitude, Majestic Horizon had come under pressure when tackled by the strong-travelling favourite turning in; however, he was more professional over the final two fences, which gave him the edge in a race where the first three horses home look well up to track success.

At Damma House on the same afternoon, Valtteri Its James (89+) opened his account at the third time of asking, albeit having been brought down four out whilst at the rear of the field at Loughrea on the middle of his three starts.

He wasn’t caught as far back on this latest outing, when one of four horses to go clear leaving the back straight at the Kilkenny track, and from the penultimate fence, he soon had the race wrapped up.

Twenty-four hours earlier in Lisronagh, Jury Time (78+) belatedly opened her account in the four-year-old mares’ maiden. She had been a beaten favourite on her opening three outings, but she saw it out best in a strongly-run contest.

The geldings’ equivalent produced one of the tightest finishes of the weekend, with Midnight In Tokyo (88+) prevailing in a tight three-way finish where five lengths covered the first five home.