BALLYKNOCK played host to Derek O’Connor’s latest landmark feat when he became the first rider to register a 1,400th point-to-point success on these shores.

The reality of what the 11-time champion has been able to do throughout his career, as his career tally extends over 400 winners clear of any other rider within the sphere, ensures that there is the real possibility that these are numbers that will likely never be seen again.

A 33% strike rate for the current campaign leaves O’Connor very much in the title hunt for his 12th championship, 11 years after his latest national title triumph.

Barry O’Neill currently sits at the top of those standings heading into the business stage of the title deciders, with just six weekends of racing remaining after this weekend’s action.

If the Wexford rider were to once again successfully defend his crown, he would match one of O’Connor’s records by being crowned champion for 10 years consecutively, a feat that he managed between 2004 and 2013.

Regional titles

The pair are also well placed in the regions. O’Connor is at the top of the provincial leaderboards in the south and the west, while O’Neill tops the standings in the east, and is just one behind in the north.

Stephen Connor jumped to the top of the standings in that region with a first career hat-trick at Loughanmore on Monday, as he goes in search of what would be his first title.

It is also heating up in the ladies’ championship, as Nicole Lockhead Anderson reduced Emily Costello’s lead to just a single win when she was successful at Quakerstown last Sunday.

In the under-21 category, David Doyle is on target to emulate Shane Fitzgerald, who was the last rider to win that title in back-to-back seasons. The Tipperary native has a three-winner advantage over the 2024 champion Shane Cotter.

Handler’s championship

Sam Curling is already in new territory, as his current tally of 38 winners has seen him surpass his previous season’s best of 34 winners in the 2024/25 campaign, and having saddled more than double the number of winners of any handler this season, it now looks highly likely that he will secure his first handler’s championship.

In the equine categories, a first defeat of the season for Hearts And Spades at Portrush two weeks ago, combined with a bloodless success for the season’s leading mare, The Great Unknown, at Loughanmore last week, has brought that pair level at the summit of the champion point-to-point horse leaderboard with six winners apiece.

The latter could go again this weekend, as she features among the entries for the open in Dromahane tomorrow, having skipped a potential hunter chase engagement at Cork last Monday, a card where her title rival, Hearts And Spades, met with a second consecutive defeat within the space of nine days.

Pat Doyle’s Magic Sadler has also been in action in hunter chase company of late and remains just one winner of that pair.

Meanwhile, Walk In The Park looks set to defend his first champion point-to-point sire title, as the 32 successes of his offspring this season leaves him 14 winners clear of Maxios.

KILKENNY trainer Emmet Mullins was once again being applauded for his more unconventional approach after the Irish Grand National success of Soldier In Milan at Fairyhouse on Monday.

The seven-year-old certainly justified his pre-race favourite’s tag when he turned the 30-runner contest into a procession, landing the most valuable jumps prize in Irish racing by 16 lengths.

Soldier In Milan was one of four former Irish pointers to finish in the first six on Monday, with The Enabler (Ellen Doyle) in third, Monbeg Genius (Sean Doyle) in fifth, and Better Days Ahead (Warren Ewing) back in sixth.

Aside from the manner of his winning performance, the success gained noted plaudits for his trainer’s decision to bypass hurdling with the Soldier Of Fortune gelding. Soldier In Milan was winning the Fairyhouse feature on only his sixth start on the racecourse since making an impressive introduction for Cormac Doyle by winning a Monksgrange maiden in spring 2024 by 16 lengths, the same margin as his Fairyhouse rout.

Mullins has previous in this regard. In 2023, he saddled Feronily to win the Champion Novice Chase at the Punchestown Festival, a Grade 1 prize that was secured without the Getaway gelding having previously won over racecourse fences, and less than six months after he had made a winning debut for Ellmarie Holden in a five-year-old geldings’ maiden at Rathcannon.

A year earlier, the Ballindenisk runner-up Noble Yeats had won the Aintree Grand National for the Kilkenny trainer as a novice, having gone chasing after just one start over hurdles.

Monday’s wide-margin victory for Soldier In Milan again highlighted Mullins’ clever campaigning of horses with a point-to-point background, and whether others may look to take a more direct route to chasing with similar pointing recruits.

Glebe House sees it out best

BIZARRELY, the outcome of all three four-year-old maiden races at Loughanmore last Saturday changed dramatically in the closing stages.

The opening division of the four-year-old mares’ maiden set the tone for what was to come in that regard, because Theemeraldempress had appeared to be travelling best to the final fence only to get run out of it in the final strides by fellow first-timer Crazy Alice (82+).

The pace had been quite steady in that division, which put more of a premium on speed, whereas there was a greater test in the second division as Mioruilteach (83+) was able to reel in Mourne Maid after the last. The latter had made a decisive move for home after the second-last when kicking clear of her rivals, but she wasn’t able to hold on in a race where only three finished.

In the geldings’ equivalent, Glebe House (92+) looked beaten when making a mistake at the penultimate fence, having had to be chased along for much of the final half-mile. However, in the end, it was the horses who jumped that second-last obstacle side-by-side in fourth and fifth that saw it out best to overhaul the trio in front of them.

Quakerstown

Milford Road (92+) also had a penultimate fence blunder to overcome at Quakertown, but in the end, that mattered little as he had too many gears for his four rivals.

At Curraghmore, the four-year-old mares’ maiden was not run to a particularly strong gallop, and as a result, there were still plenty left in contention turning into the home straight. Whiskeyintherocks (81+) had the experience from Ballyragget, which stood to her, particularly on a sounder surface, and that appeared to bring her forward.

The gallop was no stronger in the geldings’ equivalent, and in the speed test that it produced, Lead Officer (91+) quickened smartly before getting the better jump at the last, which proved to be crucial.