TWO further regional titles will be decided throughout this weekend’s action, with the final fixtures of the campaign taking place in both the north and west.

Barry Stone was the first of this season’s regional title winners when scooping the eastern crown a fortnight ago, and it is all but a foregone conclusion that Derek O’Connor will join him in the west.

The all-time winning-most rider currently sits on 14 winners, thanks in large part to his memorable six-timer in Quakerstown last month, and having had to share that particular prize in each of the past two seasons, he is well on course to collect the award for a 13th time, 16 years after his first.

O’Connor enters tomorrow’s season-ending fixture at Loughrea six winners clear of Rob James, having ridden 14 winners from 25 rides in the region.

Before that, the northern title will be decided this afternoon in Necarne, with the all-important final day of the two-days at the Fermanagh venue.

Heading into yesterday’s six-race card, Barry O’Neill led Noel McParlan by just a single winner, setting up a thrilling battle between the pair, who have been the top riders in the region, winning the title nine times between them.

Vital ammunition

O’Neill will have the backing of David Christie, who has 11 entries across the two days at his local course, including Winged Leader, who could secure his record-equaling 33rd victory this weekend.

McParlan will not be short of ammunition himself. Ger Quinn and Caroline McCaldin, who have supplied most of his winners this term, are well represented. However, a suspension which ruled him out of yesterday’s racing has counted against him.

O’Neill will also count on the support of Colin Bowe this weekend, and the reigning handler will be hoping to get on the scoreboard this weekend. Having drawn a blank from his 14 runners across last weekend’s three days of racing, he suddenly could find Sam Curling breathing down his neck.

The Tipperary handler was among the winners at three of last weekend’s four venues, and that has seen him whittle Bowe’s title lead down to just five winners. He could well provide the reigning champion with the biggest threat for some time.

FEW trainers visited the Punchestown Festival winner’s enclosure as Willie Mullins, as Grade 1 successes for the likes of pointing recruits Final Demand and Bambino Flyer contributed to the 15 victories at the Kildare course for the champion trainer.

However, one of the undoubted stories of the week’s action was Richard O’Keeffe’s cross-country double.

The Taghmon trainer may only have run six individual horses this season, but he certainly outperformed yards with many multiples of that number last week, by once again advertising his skill for producing horses that excel in the cross-country domain.

That was immediately obvious in the Punchestown opener, the Ladies Cup, where his inmates, Transprint and Turnupthevolume, fought out the finish to lead home a one-two for the stable. The three-quarter length victory for Transprint, a horse that had finished third in the previous year’s renewal, was also a first track victory for rider Tony Doyle.

Double up

That was not the end of the winning for the yard either, as their veteran stable star Vital Island, who had finished a creditable fourth in Thursday’s La Touche, a race that he had won in 2023, went on to claim Saturday’s race over the natural obstacles.

That was a third victory over the course for the 13-year-old, once again showing how much of a great leveller the course can be for the track specialists, as among the quartet of 140-plus rated horses behind him was the former dual Grade 1 winner Conflated.

The only downside of the victory is that we won’t be able to see Vital Island back in the pointing fields next season, where he has previously triumphed at Lingstown and Knockanard, the two venues within the pointing sphere that boast a cross-country course, with Lingstown proving to be his arena.

In 12 appearances over the banks at Lingstown, the Trans Island gelding has won half of them, including on his latest visit there in March, proving what a star of the discipline he has grown to become over the years.

Point experience pays for Power

HAVING signed off on his point-to-point days with three rides at Inchydoney just under 12 months ago, Tiernan Power capped off a year to remember when securing the conditional jockeys’ title by just one winner.

It has been quite a year for the Tomhaggard jockey since making the switch to the professional ranks, and since riding his first winner within that division at Tramore last August, he went on to ride a further 28 winners, having established a successful partnership with Philip Rothwell, culminating in his title success last week.

Six of the last ten champion conditional jockeys have a point-to-point background, highlighting the benefit of that early grounding, and it is noteworthy that the latest of those champions was already 26 when electing to make the switch to the paid ranks.

He did so with a wealth of experience point-to-pointing behind him, with close to 500 rides and 45 winners on these shores, in addition to his four victories in Britain when relocating during the Covid-enforced suspension to the domestic 2021 campaign.

It can seem like there is a race to climb through the ranks as quickly as possible, but Tiernan’s title-winning campaign highlights the benefit that those added years pointing can have.

Point-to-point ratings

AS ground conditions continue to dry up, Indulto Rouge (93++) showed his effectiveness on a quick surface when sprinting clear of the opposition to make a winning debut at Ballindenisk.

Quicker conditions are often not conducive to wide-margin successes, but the French-bred certainly defied that belief to win by 18 lengths.

Cavalier Du Luy (88+) was one of two similarly experienced horses that kicked clear of the field along the back straight in Toomebridge, a course which can often favour experience, which they made count.

His stablemate Jury Roses (80+) had an extra gear that none of her rivals could match from three out in the first division of the four-year-old mares’ maiden at Stowlin. The Flaggy Shore (81++) could likely have won by a multiple of the winning five-length margin in the second division, as she was never asked a question to win as she pleased.

Big Ticket (93+) also raced from the front in the first division of the geldings’ maiden. He asserted early in the home straight, proving particularly effective with this test. He joined a seemingly never-ending list of eye-catching four-year-old winners from the stable this season.

In contrast, Masked Man (92++) came from off the pace in the second division. He was only in sixth jumping the third-last fence, but under a confident waiting ride, he finished out his race particularly strongly, as many others faded.

Inishbofin (91+) brought the weekend’s action to a close in Dawstown, and building on the promise of his debut, he reeled in the runaway leader before fending off plenty of dangers late on in good style.