TWELVE months ago, Walk In The Park was crowned champion point-to-point sire for the first time with a staggering set of figures. A total of 49 winners was a record in the sphere dating back to 1989, whilst the 22-winner cushion that he enjoyed over the chasing pack was also record-breaking.
There has been no difficult second album syndrome this season either. The victory of Denis Murphy’s Bonnie Gold at Necarne a fortnight ago took the Grange Stud resident into the 40-winner bracket for a second successive season. Siring the winners of 40 point-to-point races is no mean feat, particularly when it is remembered that pre-Walk In The Park, the last horse to do so was Beneficial back in 2013.
A 17-winner margin over the rising force of Castlehyde Stud’s Maxios, will give him a second consecutive clear-cut success, irrespective of this weekend’s results.
The picture is considerably tighter, however, when you focus in on the all-important four-year-old division. Here, 53 different stallions have been responsible for at least one winner among the 105 four-year-old races run in 2026.
The pack has proven to be particularly close, with just two winners in the category separating nine stallions, as Affinisea leads the way. The Whytemount Stud stallion, who has enjoyed Grade 1 success this season with one of his previous four-year-old maiden winners in Affordale Fury, is the only stallion to have sired six different four-year-old winners in 2026.
Murphy’s magic touch
It is Affordale Fury’s former handler, Gary Murphy, who has again proven to be particularly adept at producing youngsters by the son of Sea The Stars. The Wexford handler saddled two of the six Affinisea-sired four-year-old winners this year, courtesy of Catchem Black at Comea and Sadhbh’s A Singer at Durrow, whilst Rob James enjoyed a notable result in the sales ring when his debut Dromahane winner, Star Affinity, was sold for €280,000 to Gordon Elliott.
No fewer than five stallions sit one winner behind him, with Crystal Ocean, Getaway, Jet Away, Jukebox Jury and Poet’s Word having all been responsible for five winners each, with Jukebox Jury, in particular, once again standing out with his lofty strike rate of 28%.
His five winners, which included Jonathan Fogarty’s Chanson Du Jury, a winner at Dromahane, and the Colin Bowe-trained Ballynoe winner Jurys Verdict, in the same year that his Il Etait Temps landed the Champion Chase, further reinforces the great loss that the former Burgage Stud resident has been.
That 29% strike rate was matched in that top cohort by Goliath Du Berlais. The leading French-based stallion on the list of four-year-old winners in 2026 was responsible for four such winners from 14 runs, and notably, three of them, namely Monster Truck (£530,000), Monzon Sport (£400,000), and Palinca (£400,000), account for half of the six point-to-pointers this season that have generated sums of £400,000 or more at public auction.
Further down the order, there were several stallions with fewer four-year-old runners who posted notable results. Among them, the French import, Jeu St Eloi, who now stands at Glenview Stud, boasted a 100% record with his spring four-year-old runners.
This particular Haras de Cercy crop produced two debut point-to-point winners in the age group in recent months. Milady Du Plessis won a four-year-old mares’ maiden first time out at Lisronagh in February for Mark O’Hare, before Stuart Crawford repeated the feat with Monjeu De Chaillac in a four-year-old geldings’ maiden at Castletown-Geoghegan last month.
Jeu St Eloi’s former stablemate at Haras de Cercy, Prince Gibraltar, matched that feat courtesy of two four-year-old winners within the space of a fortnight earlier this month.
Crawford was also responsible for the debut success of Mirage D’Alene at Toomebridge, before Tactic, the only other four-year-old runner by Prince Gibraltar this year, got off the mark at the first attempt in Ballindenisk for Mick Goff.
Point-to-point ratings
DARRAGH Higgins rode out his claim in style last Sunday with a Ballindenisk double, which included the eye-catching success of Dan De Champ (91+) in the first division of the four-year-old geldings’ maiden.
His handler, Mick Murphy, has previously enjoyed four-year-old success at the same venue with the subsequent Grade 2 winner, Journey With Me, and in Dan De Champ, he looks to have unearthed a nice prospect.
Having raced alongside Saint De Gemix, with whom he ultimately fought out the finish, at the back of the field, the pair finished best, with Dan De Champ proving to be more professional on the run-in. In division two, Harzwood (89+) was left clear two-out, and only had to be kept up to his work from there.
Kingside Lady (82++) had opened the card with a dominant victory in the mares’ maiden. She proved to be more than a class above her rivals in what proved to be little more than a schooling exercise, given she never came off the bridle. She looks to have plenty of pace to figure in a bumper.
At Loughrea, Fortunate Miss (80++) did well to build up a 10-length winning margin in what was a slowly-run race, suggesting she has all the speed for a bumper during the summer, whilst Myself D’Agrostis (88+) quickened clear of two vastly more experienced rivals from two out.