FOR the wider public, there is no greater race than the Aintree Grand National, and for the second year in succession, it was a point-to-point graduate who claimed the valuable £561,000 first prize in the Aintree spectacle.

One For Arthur may well have taken five attempts to shed his maiden tag, however, Liam Kenny’s charge was a very progressive individual, stepping-up with each outing culminating in his maiden success at Lingstown in November 2013.

Incredibly, the result of that four-year-old maiden at the Wexford venue was almost replicated to the exact distance at Aintree some 40 months later. One For Arthur had finished eight lengths in front of the subsequent Cheltenham Festival winner Blaklion on that occasion, and Blaklion, who had finished third at Lingstown, was eight and three-quarter lengths in arrears of Lucinda Russell’s charge at Aintree last Saturday.

Unsurprisingly given that incredible turn of events, the video of the final three fences of that Lingstown maiden went viral on social media in the immediate aftermath of the race. The video itself has been watched by over 100,000 people on Facebook and reached over a quarter of a million people across social media.

Somewhat timely, the three big point-to-point winners at Aintree were all autumn graduates, as both The World’s End and Finian’s Oscar enjoyed Grade 1 success in the novice hurdle division in Liverpool.

The latter writing the latest chapter in what has been an incredible season for Denis Murphy’s Portrush point-to-point winner, who continues to be this season’s poster horse for the quality of animal presently running between the flags.

Those successes for point-to-point graduates, and the publicity which it generates for the sport has ensured that the awareness of the impact which point-to-point horses have on the track has never been greater. For example, immediately after the Grade 1 victory of Finian’s Oscar in the Mersey Novices’ Hurdle, At The Races were already re-running online the segment of their weekly ITM-sponsored point-to-point programme which had featured his Portrush success just five months earlier.

All this exposure following these big race successes, has undoubtedly led to a position where confidence in Irish point-to-point form is at an all-time high.

Evidence of this is clearly visible through the incredible demand for young horses with Irish point-to-point form at present, which has ensured that this season is set to be a record breaker in terms of the total sum generated by Irish pointers at the sales.

Despite a number of sales still yet to take place this season, over £10 million has already been spent at public sales on Irish pointers alone. To put this into context, at this same corresponding point last year, the total spend stood at £6.2 million, while in 2015 it was £4.7 million.

That represents an increase of 61% in 12 months, and a massive 112% in just a two-year period. The autumn campaign alone this season generated £3.4 million in public sales, highlighting its importance to the economy and the success it has become in its relatively short lifespan.

Meanwhile, last week’s Aintree sale saw Colin Bowe’s Madison To Monroe become the sixth point-to-pointer to break the £300,000 barrier at public auction this season and the 32nd point-to-point horse to change hands for a six-figure sum. By this point last year, that figure stood at 19 horses.

The real benefit for the wider Irish National Hunt breeding sector from these point-to-point gains cannot be downplayed. As has the been the case in recent years, point-to-point handlers have continually been reinvesting these returns at the store sales, with the additional value which they have been able to sell their horses on for, allowing them to increase their spend as they seek to replenish their stables for the following seasons racing. This continued cycle has now ensured that the point-to-point handler is now a very key player in this market.