NEVER before have two horses dominated a point-to-point season as Longhouse Music and Kruzhlinin have done this season. The pair head into the final weekend of the season tied at the top of the champion point-to-point horse category with 12 wins apiece.

For Sam Curling’s Longhouse Music, since making a winning return to action at Moira in October, she has suffered just two defeats, losing out by a neck to Holly Flight in the mares’ open at Dungarvan in January, and then having to settle for second behind last season’s champion Sydney Paget at Quakerstown in April. Her 12 victories, which includes one walkover, have come across each of the four regions.

Kruzhlinin has also covered plenty of miles in the horsebox, winning at tracks as far apart as Kirkistown in the north, to Ballindenisk in the south, and from Moig South to Tinahely.

The 12-year-old brought up a sequence of nine consecutive victories in open company during the season and he also completed the notable achievement of winning twice within a 24-hour window, following successes at Loughanmore and Ballindenisk, two tracks that are no less than 400 kilometres apart.

Champion

In each of the seven years since the champion point-to-point horse title was introduced, an end-of-season total of either seven or eight victories has been enough to secure title honours; however this is proving to be no ordinary season.

In fact, with both horses likely to have a busy final weekend, whoever is crowned champion by Monday afternoon, could well do so with a total that is double that of many of the former champions.

Spare a thought for Gerry Spain’s Some Are Lucky who sits back in third despite winning seven races this season. In any other season, he could well have been champion himself.

Longhouse Music's 12 wins this season have come across each of the four regions of the points' circuit \ Healy Racing

These three days of racing will decide the outcome of the title, with both likely to head to Kinsale this evening, where Longhouse Music would be first into action at 6.30pm in the mares’ open, with a much stiffer task possibly facing Kruzhlinin in the four-mile open 30 minutes later.

Longhouse Music is also entered in 24 hours later in Ballingarry where she could face just four rivals, and the ladies’ open at Ballingarry on Monday could well decide the outcome, a race that unsurprisingly features both title contenders, among a total entry of 13.

May the best horse win.