THE most interesting development announced by the IHRB for the upcoming spring 2019 season is sure to be the introduction of a number of four-year-old auction maidens.

Beginning in early March, the races, which will cater specifically for horses that were bought or sold at public auction for €25,000 or less in 2018, will be run in four of the five pointing regions.

To qualify to run in them, a horse must have been bought or sold this year at one of five sales, beginning with the Tattersalls Ireland May Sale, Derby Sale and August Sale with the Fairyhouse-based auction house, and either the Goffs Land Rover Sale or Goffs UK Spring Store Sale.

This stipulation does exclude horses bought as stores at other sales, including the likes of Kupatana, who was purchased as a store for just €1,700 at Goresbridge.

The success of the Foran Equine-sponsored Auction Maiden series on the flat, highlighted the interest in these types of races under rules, and led to a similar series of races for National Hunt racing.

That Red Mills Irish EBF Auction Hurdle series targets horses that were bought at store sales for €45,000 or less, offering their owners and trainers the opportunity to target some big prize pots, with 14 maiden or novice hurdles carrying a minimum prize of €20,000 and a €75,000 final at the Punchestown festival.

The success of these series’ has stemmed from the excellent prize money that it has offered to the owners of those less expensive horses.

It will be interesting to see if transferring this auction model directly across to point-to-points, and more specifically to four-year-old maidens, will prove to be as straightforward.

REWARD

The owners of these young horses are not chasing the first prize of €560 that is on offer for four-year-old maidens, but the possible financial reward that may come when they sell the horse.

The majority of owners and handlers that run horses in four-year-old maidens, are following this popular buy-to-sell tradition, a fact borne out in the significantly reduced prize money that is offered for these races, in comparison with those races for older maidens, winners’ races or open lightweights.

QUALITY OF HORSES

One of the reasons for the prices being paid for pointers in recent years has been the quality of horses lining up in these maidens each week.

This has allowed those handlers with cheaper purchases to add significant value to their horses without winning, but by simply finishing close to expensive stores.

Gary Murphy’s €1,800 store Frozen Flame was one of many examples of that last year. After finishing a close second at Ballinaboola behind the Gigginstown-owned €56,000 store, Dorydalis, he went on to be sold for £145,000.

Therefore, the success of these races may well come down to how the market reacts to them and the value they are willing to put on horses winning races that are missing these expensive, well-bred stores.

The more immediate concern is their scheduling.

When the possibility of introducing these auction maidens was first brought to the Point-to-Point Handlers Association by the IHRB, the association put it to its members at their general meeting earlier in the year, with the request was for the races to be scheduled for the end of the season.

The first race has in fact been scheduled to take place at Kirkistown on March 8th.

YOUNG HORSES

That opening race comes very early into the four-year-old season when only the most forward of young horses are in a position to run.

Looking at the picture at the beginning of March 2018 to get a glimpse at how many horses may potentially be eligible to run at Kirkistown next year, of the 54 horses that had run in four-year-old maidens up to and including that weekend, only 10 would be eligible to be entered for this opening auction race.

The numbers do improve when looking at the four-year-olds that had run by the date of what will the second proposed auction race at Durrow. Here, of the 103 individual horses that ran in four-year-old maidens, 20 would be eligible.

Interestingly, these 20 horses would represent just 13 different handlers. Cormac Doyle had run four horses that would be eligible, Warren Ewing three, Denis Hogan and Gerry Kelleher both had two, with Colin Bowe, Sean Doyle, Mick Goff, John Halley, Aidan Fitzgerald, Pierce Power, Matthew Flynn O’Connor, Garrett Ahern and Brian Jordan, each running one horse within the first two months of the four-year-old season.

If the two races scheduled for March were instead run in May, handlers would crucially be given significantly more time to have a larger number of horses ready to run, and these would likely also come from a wider range of yards.

As owner-breeders, those who prefer to purchase their horses as either foals or yearlings, or direct from France are excluded from these races, there will be those put out by their introduction into the middle of the season.

However, given the growing number of young horses on the ground at present, with some fine tuning, there could well be the required demand to ensure that these auction races have an important role to play within the sport into the future.