LAST spring Sean Doyle looked set to record his highest tally of winners in a point-to-point season since he started off as a handler just over 10 years ago.

By the time of what would ultimately be the final fixture of the 2019/2020 season at Ballyragget in mid March, he had sent out 16 winners. More significantly, he had lots to look forward to between the flags and in the sales ring, with horses to run and horses to sell. Then the rug got pulled.

“I think I had only run two four-year-olds out of 28,” he told Eogháin Ward in these pages in April, reflecting when the entire industry had come to a halt. “We still had 39 riding out when the season was cancelled but everything has gone out to field now. We have 11 five-year-olds and they would have all ended up at the Doncaster Sale at the end of the season as is routine.

“Now starting off next season, we are going to have the 39 to come back. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for new stock and it’s the same for a lot of lads.”

Among Doyle’s - and many handlers in the point-to-point sector - other worries included how would he be able to reinvest and make room for new stores, the state of British racing and whether the foreign market would still be as active for the flat horses, a development since the turn of the century that opened a gap for the Irish point-to-point sector to thrive.

Fast forward

Fast forward five months and there are still unknowns but most significantly, the belt is back moving again. The store sales have come and gone and an elongated autumn fixture list, designed to accommodate the surplus stock of handlers, got underway last weekend.

“I was racing both days last weekend and everything ran real smoothly,” Doyle says. “The protocols were top class, everything was real simple and straightforward. It was two great days racing with lots of horses forward and ready to run. The ground was lovely on both tracks and it was just great to be back racing really. The extra fixtures they’ve put on are a great help.”

Over the next few months, the sales should be coming thick and fast but here lies the uncertainty because just like it has been all summer, the question of whether sales will take place at all looms large.

The November Sale held in the parade ring of Cheltenham is usually a first major port of call for Irish point-to-point sellers but further doubt was cast upon whether it will go ahead or not when the British Government announced this week that restrictions on crowds in sporting arenas could last up to six months.

“That November Sale is the first big sale for us every year and we’d always be aiming horses for that,” Doyle says. “There is a sale in Doncaster next month and we’ll enter whatever we can for that. That will give us some sort of guide of how things are.

“You’d be quietly hopeful. The last sale in Doncaster, the trade looked solid enough so you’d be hoping people will still be keen to buy. Racing is still going on and owners are just back in Ireland and have been back for a while in Britain.

“We want to get crowds back but it was very important to get owners back in. They don’t buy horses to sit at home and watch them on the telly.”

Doyle has to be hopeful, he’s got 56 horses riding out and 10 more in pre-training waiting to come in. That is at least 20 more horses than he’d usually have at this time of year and a direct result of the backlog from missing part of the spring point-to-point season and sales.

Reflecting back to that time Doyle says: “Everything was a bit of a panic. The first couple of weeks during lockdown, the phone rang a few times, people thought they were getting bargains and chanced a few.

“We did manage to sell three unraced horses and that was a big help. Of course you’d have liked to see them go and realise their potential in a point first but I was grateful to the people who bought them off me, for showing their faith in me.

“After that first month, things got very quiet. Over the summer, the phone never rang. Now that we are back going, I still think there will be some trade there - people will be able to move horses on. I don’t think it will be anything like it was for the time being but I think if we can keep moving then we have a chance of surviving.”

Survival

Immediate survival is the primary objective but you have to keep moving in this sector and thinking ahead. The wheel always turns and if you fall off at one stage, it’s very hard to get going again. That’s why Doyle had to be active at the store sales and take on that extra risk, with last year’s stock still around.

That said, this was the second year Gigginstown have been inactive at the sales and with the heavy decline in the influence of British buyers due to quarantine restrictions, he says the opportunity to buy a nice horse at a low price was there.

I don’t think it will be anything like it was for the time being but I think if we can keep moving then we have a chance of surviving.”

“I’d say trade definitely went back for the people selling,” Doyle says. “They were definitely taking a hit, probably down somewhere between 20 and 25%. We bought a lot of lovely horses for just over foal prices so all in all, I think we got a lot of value.

“You noticed it (absence of Gigginstown and British buyers on foot) at the sales for sure. It definitely gave us a better opportunity to buy the type of horse we wanted to buy. The top of the store [market] probably took a bigger hit than the bottom.

“We reinvested in 20 more three-year-olds so at the moment we’re well over our limit. Most of the five-year-olds will have one or two runs each and then hopefully they will be shifted on to make room for the three-year-olds. A lot of the four-year-olds are ready to run in the next fortnight, we’re just waiting on a bit more rain.

“It brings extra pressure, of course it does, but we’ve also been helped by a couple of things as well. Things like the colleges not starting back yet - that has kept a couple of people back here to ride out. That has been a help and has probably saved us a little until we can get a few moved on.

“You have to stay hopeful. I think if we can get going and get the backlog cleared, that come February/March, everything should be okay.”

Eyes opened

It was at the November Sale at Cheltenham that Sean and brother Donnchadh first had their eyes opened to a gap in the market. They both spent time with neighbour Colin Bowe and travelled to Cheltenham to see him land a few nice touches first hand.

Doyle explains: “We were always buying and selling at the lower end but we could see the opportunity was there when we saw lads buying horses for €15-20,000 and then they were going on to sell them for €100,000.

“We were lucky enough to get our hands on horses that we bought for €15,000 and they went on to make €70-80,000. Then we bought a better quality of horse, worth maybe €30-40,000 and a couple of them made €200,000 plus. That was a lot of money out of them and we are always putting it back in. That’s how the numbers kept growing.

“We had to do that because every weekend we were taking on the likes of Gigginstown. I remember we sat down at one stage and decided that if we wanted to move up the ladder, we had to buy a more quality store.

“As the years went on, we kept reinvesting and sure we were lucky enough we got a couple of very good horses through our hands, the likes of Holywell. He was my first big one and he went on and won at Cheltenham.

Holywell winning in Cheltenham

“Then we had Invitation Only, who was a good horse, Donnchadh had Topofthegame who came out and won at Cheltenham and even this year Cormac (younger brother) had Monkfish who won at Cheltenham as well.

“The Monbeg Stables banner became well known and people kept ringing. Most of the people we started off dealing with, we’ve been dealing with for 10 years now and they keep coming back to us. As long as they keep coming back, we can keep buying stores and producing them and if they can go to the top then even better again.”

Sean, Donnchadh and Cormac all operate on their own as handlers but sell under the Monbeg name at the sales. The operation got too big to operate through just one training base.

People see the big numbers dished out for point-to-point four-year-olds at the big festival sales and it would be easy to surmise that it’s an easy game but it’s never been that simple, Doyle says.

“You could buy a horse for €50,000 and it won’t work out but the horse you bought for €10,000 could go on and make 50. You have to have that back up. You couldn’t go out there and buy all the expensive stores or else you’d end up on the road very quick.

“You have to have horses from €2,000 from anything right up to €100,000 these days. You’d have to have that sort of variance of horses around the place just to cover all angles.

“I’d say the average now is around €30,000 a store which is not so bad because if you can get one in four or five to click and the others make their money back, you’re going okay. If two out of 20 to sell real well, that’ll cover your year with the hope that the rest of them can make their money back and you can reinvest again.

“All the time you have to keep reinvesting in your facilities also. We were always improving and upgrading things around the yard - better gallops and better schooling facilities so when the good horse came along we were able to mind them, produce him the way we wanted to produce him and keep him injury free.”

Doyle trains the odd one for the track still and has done well with limited stock. Crosshue Boy should have been sold as a four-year-old but for an injury and Doyle was able to capitalise on that bit of luck, training the son of Brian Boru to win four times as a novice chaser including a £100,000 novice chase at Ayr.

Good mares

He has also trained good mares Theatre Bird and Gracemount to notable success and yet the prospect of operating as a fully fledged trainer for the track doesn’t make a great deal of appeal to him.

“I love point-to-points,” he asserts. “The whole atmosphere. The whole grounding of young horses, teaching them and bringing them along. I’d be hoping to stay going at this for as long as I could.

“The point-to-point community is very close. You’d really be looking forward toSunday, going meeting everyone. You’d have the likes of Warren Ewing, Mick Murphy, Denis Murphy, Colin Bowe and whatever happens, you’d always have a great bit of craic there with them.

“Everyone is there thinking their horse is the best and afterwards, most of us are trying to think of an excuse! It’s just a great day out among good local people.

“It’s the unknown aspect of the current situation that is the worrying thing, really. If we can get through the next six or seven months with people digging in to give a hand at fixtures and so on, then I think we’ll be able to survive anything.”

Horses to follow

On the track…

Champagnesuperover is a horse we sold out of here last season and he is very exciting. He is with Olly Murphy and he won his bumper by 16 lengths at Ayr. I am really looking forward to seeing him again. Another one I really like is Where It All Began. He’s a Yeats horse and a half-brother to Rathvinden. Max McNeill has him now and he’s going into training with Gordon Elliott. He’s exciting.

Between the flags…

There’s a very nice Milan filly called Walk In My Shoes. We’re excited about her. There’s also a Flemensfirth horse called Unexpected Edge that I’m looking forward to. They will be ready to go in the next few weeks.