PETER Flood became one of the first trainers to win a race under rules using the revised hunter chase licence when he saddled Save Us Avis to win the Glenview & Rathbarry Studs Mares Maiden Hunter Chase at Cork on Easter Monday.

The licence was amended in late 2018, largely due to the campaigning of fellow point-to-point handler Brian Mortell in a bid to open up opportunities for handlers in hunter chases and point-to-point bumpers, following a period of lower-than-ideal entries.

The previous licence permitted handlers to train a maximum of two horses, with an additional stipulation that both of these horses must be family owned, which prevented them from running horses that were owned by members of the public in these races.

Crucially, these two restrictions were removed from the Hunter Chase licence by the Irish Horse Racing Regulatory Board (IHRB), with the latter constraint in particular key in allowing Flood to run the nine-year-old mare on Monday as she is owned by her breeders Dermot Mulvihill and his son Fergal.

“I think it was 2019 that I originally took out the hunter chase licence. Brian Mortell was on the first course and I went on the second one. I had Ourmanmassini at the time and it gave me another option with him,” explained Flood.

“It was only back at the Fairyhouse point-to-point day in November that I actually had my first runner on the track with Captain Mundi in one of the point-to-point bumpers. This time last year I was hoping to run Star Wizard in a couple of the maiden hunter chases but everything stopped and we have had to wait until this time of the year when most of those races on better ground are on.

“Going to the track just gives you that extra option. If you take Star Wizard that I have who has to run in opens now after winning his maiden and three winners races.

“He is coming up against horses rated 130 in a lot of the opens which is tough, but now we have the option of a maiden hunter chase which wouldn’t be as hot and even in those winners hunter chases, at least we would be getting some weight.

“It is great prize money too, she won €5,900 on Monday compared to the €1,200 for the point-to-points which is great for owners.”

After that opening success plans are already being made for the daughter of Mahler following her Easter success.

“She is a tough mare and has improved a lot. She really improves with racing and comes into her own later in the season, so I am looking at a winners’ hunter chase at Tramore for her now. It was great for everyone involved Dermot and Fergal (Mulvihill), who bred her, Dermot’s wife Avis who the horse is named after, and of course Hugh (Mulvihill) too.”

Best known for his handling of 2017 champion point-to-point horse Ourmanmassini, Flood who had over 200 rides in point-to-points before moving to the training ranks, has enjoyed improving fortunes with the horses that he has produced through the younger age maidens more recently.

Monday’s Irish Grand National-third Enjoy D’Allen won a Tinahely maiden for him as a five-year-old before being sold, with Kid Commando, a listed winner at Ascot this season another of his graduates following a success at Quakerstown.

“We have 20 there at the minute. We used to do more of the pre-training but we have more of our own now to try and sell and then a couple of the open horses for owners looking for a bit of fun,” he added.

“I am doing the restricted licence this month too, when you see what has happened with Covid it would be handy to have to give yourself the option of running some on the track.

“I have a couple of open horses who I would like to run in handicaps too and getting the restricted licence just gives me a few more options.”

LAST month’s Cheltenham Festival proved to be the biggest advertisement possible for the quality of equine talent that is being produced on an annual basis from the point-to-point fields and that winning spree continued into Monday’s Irish Grand National when Freewheelin Dylan led home fellow point-to-point graduates Run Wild Fred and Enjoy D’Allen in what was a clean sweep of the placings for the sports exports.

Unlike at Cheltenham where the success shone the spotlight on what could be classed as the more commercial element of point-to-pointing, with all bar one of the 13 Festival winners having left the point sphere after running in a four-year-old maiden at the outset of their careers, the path taken by Freewheelin Dylan to Monday’s National success echoed that of the more traditional route from a bygone era.

The beginning of his career in the point-to-point fields did mirror so many of those Cheltenham winners in that he ran in a pair of four-year-old maidens initially for Shane Donohoe before being bought to run for his current connections of trainer Dermot McLoughlin and owner Sheila Mangan after finishing second in a Kirkistown maiden in November 2016.

Reappearing the following spring for his new stable, the then five-year-old immediately came to the fore when narrowly winning a five-year-old geldings’ maiden at Maralin, before following that up in winner-of-one company three weeks later with a more comfortable success at Bellurgan Park.

Freewheelin Dylan continued to climb the ranks within the winners division, moving into a winner-of-two at Broughshane where he came out second best to David Christie’s subsequent champion point-to-point horse Eddies Miracle.

His connections continued to step him up in grade as he then contested a ladies open at Necarne where he finished second to the late Sprintingforgold, who was recording his seventh success of the season, before ticking off the full complement of divisions within the sport by contesting the end of season hunter case at Listowel where he upset the favourite Minella For Value who had come into the race having won five opens that season.

THE boost from 13 Cheltenham Festival winners could certainly be seen in the results from the first sale of point-to-pointers in 2021 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham March Sale at Newmarket, as although the horses offered for sale from these shores came with form from point-to-point bumpers rather than the point-to-point maidens we are accustomed to, the appetite from within the buyers’ market was particularly strong in the current climate.

All bar two of the horses offered for sale found buyers with a total of five horses with point-to-point bumper form realising six-figure sums headlined by the £220,000 top price for Au Fleuron, a four-and-a-half-length winner of a four-year-old geldings’ point-to-point bumper at Tipperary last month for Denis Murphy.

His year-older half-brother Coachman could also feature for Murphy’s Ballyboy Stables at the Limerick Junction course on Sunday, as he is one of 91 horses in the five-year-old geldings’ maiden on the Scarteen Foxhounds’ card.

Buoyed by those strong returns in the sales ring, the long-awaited resumption of point-to-pointing today has certainly been strongly supported, with the four programmed races at Cork for the Duhallow Dromahane committee attracting 195 entries, and a total of 210 horses featuring on tomorrow’s card in Tipperary.

Despite featuring just four races, the two meetings are unsurprisingly by some way the biggest fixtures of the season, highlighting the supply of horses which has been backed up over the past three months.