IT is very much a case of the status quo being maintained throughout the autumn in terms of those achieving the greatest level of success with Barry O’Neill and Colin Bowe sitting at the top of their respective leaderboards.
Despite the rare occurrence of neither O’Neill or Jamie Codd making it into the winner’s enclosure on a busy Sunday last weekend, they end the autumn season as the top two riders, with the reigning champion having partnered 16 winners, leaving him three clear of Codd. Rob James sits in third, clear of John Barry, Derek O’Connor and Noel McParlan.
In the regions, O’Neill leads the way in the east and is alongside Codd in the north, with Codd also holding the top spot in the west. John Barry leads Darragh Allen in the south.
Ben Harvey is the leading under-21 rider, and defending champion Maxine O’Sullivan has the advantage in the ladies’ category.
On the handler’s front, Colin Bowe has an advantage of four winners over Denis Murphy, with Sean Doyle, Ellen Doyle and David Christie completing the autumn top five.
Sean Doyle’s My Story is the sole horse to have won three races this term, following successes at Loughrea, Loughanmore and Knockmullen House, with no fewer than 10 horses having enjoyed two victories, and Flemensfirth is the autumn’s leading sire.
New courses for 2020
ATTENTION quickly turns to the 2020 spring season which gets underway at Dromahane on Monday, December 30th, and those handlers intending to run at the fixture, are reminded that entries close on Tuesday, December 17th.
Cork fixtures play host to four of the opening six meetings on the spring fixture list and two of those fixtures will have new venues for 2020.
The Lisgoold committee will cross the M8 motorway as they have moved from their recent home at Templencarriga to Ballindenisk, for their fixture on Sunday, January 5th, which is a stand alone point-to-point on that weekend.
Two weeks later the Killeagh point-to-point will take place, and this week they announced details of their brand new course for that fixture on Sunday, January 19th, having last season temporarily moved to Boulta from their long-standing and popular course at Knockane.
Located less than two miles south of Killeagh village itself, the course will be easily accessible from the N25 Cork to Waterford road between Killeagh and Castlemartyr.
The track is a right-handed one mile circuit with five fences to be jumped on each lap, with the starting point in the region of the winning post area, which will be situated halfway up the home straight.
Clerk of the course Frank Motherway said: “This is a new venture for Killeagh point-to-point, and after having a 35-year relationship with the old Knockane course, we move two miles east to our newly acquired course in Carrigarostig, which hopefully will be as popular with the public, owners and handlers for 2020.”
Finding new tracks for hunt committees is proving harder and harder with each passing year, and it is great that both committees have been able to be accommodated for 2020 to maintain their position in the fixture list.