THE point-to-point season covers the eight months from the beginning of October through to the bank holiday weekend in June. However, the reality is that for so many of the yards across the country, particularly those focussed on producing horses to run in four and five-year-old maidens, it is a year-long, 12-month business.
The curtain will fall on the 2017/18 campaign at just after 4.30pm in Ballingarry on Monday afternoon but that will just herald in the next phase of the process – that of restocking yards around the country. This year, that process has begun even earlier, with the introduction of the Tattersalls Ireland May Store Sale, in part a consequence of the ever-growing influence of the point-to-point buyer in the store market.
REINVEST
That circle of reinvestment will intensify in 10 days’ time with the Goffs Land Rover Sale. Consignors there and at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale, which follows later in the month, will be hoping to see the vast sums that have been spent on Irish point-to-point form horses over the past eight months, trickle down to them as the point-to-point owners and handlers look to reinvest ahead of the spring 2019 season.
Ahead of that process, many will have been keeping a close eye to see which stallions have been doing the business between the flags this season, to gauge which progeny will be in demand when they come under the hammer later this month.
On the stallion front, the 2017/18 season has in part been a changing of the old guard, as the loss of Beneficial in 2013, so long the dominant force in the pointing fields, has been evident throughout this year. The former Knockhouse Stud resident, who was named leading point-to-point sire in seven of the last nine years, dropped out of the top 15 in 2018.
FLEMENSFIRTH
His place has been taken by another former champion sire, in the 2015 title winner Flemensfirth. The 34 winners he has sired this campaign, ahead of this weekend’s season finale, already betters the tally of last season’s champion, alongside his own tally of 2015 when he gained his first point-to-point title.
Chief amongst those 34 was undoubtedly Sydney Paget. The Pat Doyle-trained 11-year-old has been the dominant force within the open division, winning no fewer than eight consecutive races since the turn of the year.
In fact, by having also sired Wilcosdiana, who is on course to win the champion mares’ prize, Flemensfirth looks set to take a clean sweep of the three end of season titles that are awarded to horses.
Within the younger age groupings, the Beeches Stud resident, who commands a stud fee of €15,000 in 2018, enjoyed a particularly notable autumn, where Sean Doyle’s Ballinaboola winner Know The Score realised £380,000 at the Cheltenham November Sale before going on to win a Towcester bumper. A month later Beyondthestorm was sold for £150,000 in the Cheltenham sale ring after also winning his four-year-old maiden at the first time of asking in Moira.
LEADING SIRES
Fellow Coolmore stallion Milan, who stands at Grange Stud, is on course for his best ever finish in the leading sires leaderboard, as he looks set to better a number of third-placed finishes in the leaderboard following 25 winners, including the Gain Mares’s Final victor Milan Dancer. She notched up three victories for her sire this season, in a year which also saw his former point-to-point winner Monbeg Notorious land the Thyestes Chase at Gowran Park in January.
The late Gold Well was certainly lost in his prime back in 2013 and the progeny of the former Beeches Stud resident is justifying those who lamented his passing as a big loss for the National Hunt stallion ranks here. At this point in the season 12 months ago, the son of Sadler’s Wells had produced a very notable strike rate of 20 winners from the 36 individual horses that he produced which ran in points. A further two winners this season have seen him climb through the leaderboard to sit in third spot.
Just two of the top seven sires in the leaderboard are actively standing in Ireland, which will further herald in a tide of change over the coming seasons. Court Cave, Getaway and Mahler, who sit just inside the top 10, are three sires who could well prosper for that over the years to come.
EYE-CATCHING
Responsible for 14 winners this season, Court Cave is certainly a stallion on the rise, as 2018 marks his first appearance in the top 10 of point-to-point stallions. It also continues his year-on-year increases into a fourth consecutive year, more than doubling the six winners which he had just three years ago in 2015. A number of eye-catching four-year-old winners in the autumn set the tone for his season, including the impressive Queens Cave, whom Aidan Fitzgerald sold for £175,000 after her wide-margin debut Dromahane victory.
The popularity of Getaway amongst breeders in his early years at stud is evident in the 89 individual horses that he sired who ran between the flags this season, producing 14 winners including big-price sellers Lust For Glory and The Big Getaway.
Mahler completes that trio on the 14-winner mark consolidating the big step forward that his progeny made last year. The 14-year-old only had his first point-to-point winner in 2014 and 2017 marked his big arrival on the stallion front between the flags, more than doubling his best number of winners for a single season.
Stallion Winners Individual
Horses
Flemensfirth (USA) 34 73
Milan (GB) 25 84
Gold Well (GB) 22 69
Stowaway (GB) 20 82
Oscar (IRE) 18 76
Presenting (GB) 15 56
Scorpion (IRE) 15 59
Court Cave (IRE) 14 51
Getaway (GER) 14 89
Mahler (GB) 14 68
Each of the stallions which features in the top 10 of this season’s leading sires has undoubtedly had the advantage of larger numbers on the ground. Each of the 10 had a minimum of 50 individual horses running this season.
STRIKE RATES
Outside of that top 10, there are a number of instances of stallions with half that number of stock producing notable strike rates. Kedrah House Stud’s Well Chosen was responsible for 10 point-to-point winners this season, despite having just 22 individual horses running. Craigsteel and Gamut sat just behind him on the eight winner mark. The loss of Craigsteel late last year from Gortnamona Stud was a big blow for them, as his eight winners came from just 15 runners. The eight winners for Gamut were amassed from an even smaller pool of horses, with the Rosshill Farm resident responsible for 13 individual runners this season.
SPRING SEASON
Four-year-old maiden winners in particular certainly add to a stallion’s reputation and can often give an early indication as to the potential prospects for a new stallion within the ranks. Unfortunately, this year the top of this table is a case of what could have been, as the stallions which fill the top three positions are all now deceased.
In total, there have been 74 four-year-old maiden winners, including both mares and geldings, and of those, a remarkable 11 have been won by the late Jeremy. This is almost double the number of four-year-old winners sired by Westerner 12 months ago when he was the leading sire of four-year-old winners during the 2017 spring campaign.
It is a similar story when comparing it to the 2016 spring campaign, when both Gold Well and Oscar were responsible for five winners within the four-year-old division.
It was a case of quantity alongside quality with the late Garryrichard Stud resident, who has sired five winners alone during the month of May, including The Very Man, Tribesman Glory and Silver Forever. The consigners of his 19 offspring entered in the Land Rover Sale and 14 at the Derby Sale, will certainly be buoyed by those recent results between the flags.
It is a similar case with Fame And Glory, albeit in this instance with his first crop of point-to-point runners, and Stowaway, with that pair also dying while their crop were on the rise. The five spring four-year-old winners for Fame And Glory include the subsequent Goffs Land Rover Bumper winner Commander Of Fleet.
Stowaway’s four-year-old winners have been commanding big prices following their victories. Lismore winner Feel My Pulse was later sold for £330,000, with his Quakerstown victor Champagne Platinum realising £250,000.
Stallion 4yo maiden winners in 2018
Jeremy 11
Fame And Glory 5
Stowaway 4
Flemensfirth 3
Gold Well 3
Kayf Tara 3
Martaline 3
Milan 3
September Storm 3