THIS weekend’s racing is dominated by two of the biggest entries seen in point-to-points for quite some time. The backlog created by the bad weather the country has experienced during so much of the season has become evident.

Sunday’s fixture at Bartlemy has attracted an entry of 232, which is by far the biggest entry of the season, while 24 hours earlier, the Mid-Antrim’s have been handsomely rewarded for moving their fixture from Broughshane to Loughanmore, coming close to also breaking the 200-entry mark with an entry of 193.

Incredibly, that entry at Loughanmore is the single largest entry within the northern region for close to a decade.

Following-on from the 181 entries that were received for last Monday’s meeting at Dawstown, the demand that currently exists amongst handlers right across the country to run their horses is extremely high, and hunts are benefitting with strong entries.

DRIVING FORCE

The younger age maidens continue to provide much of the driving force to those big entries, with no less than 72 horses entered in the four-year-old maiden at Loughanmore, the largest entry in a single race for some time. There are also 62 horses entered in the four-year-old geldings’ maiden at Bartlemy, with a further 36 in the four-year-old mares’ maiden on the same card. Encouragingly, races for five-year-olds, mares and older horses also received individual entries upwards of 30 in each.

This demand for races at this later point of the season has pushed entries into the realms of figures not seen for some time. In the instance of the entries for Bartlemy, Loughanmore and Dawstown, the three largest entries this season which have come within a six-day window, all trump the largest entry from the 2016/17, 2015/16 and 2014/15 seasons. The 232 entries for Bartlemy is the single biggest entry since Dromahane back in December 2013.

While the current high level of entries within the past two weeks can be somewhat attributed to the desperation of handlers to run their horses that have been waiting for better ground, they do come on the back of consistent increases for a number of weeks, which is a very encouraging sign.

Since the turn of the year, the average entry for an individual fixture is currently sitting at 105. This is a 10% increase to the same point last year, when the average entry for the spring season up to the corresponding point sat below the 100 mark at 96 entries per fixture.

Considering just how difficult the weather conditions have been since the turn of the year, this does show the early signs of a very welcome recovery from the recent lows that the sport experienced.