WITH two winners at Tyrella on Saturday and another two at Belharbour on Sunday Derek O’Connor has taken his career tally in point-to-points to 997.

What a remarkable achievement given that he only started to ride in races in 1999 and is still relatively young at 32 years of age.

Derek has taken point-to-point riding to a completely different level and his judgment of pace is second to none. What is also so evident when watching pointing on a regular basis is his ability to get young horses to jump.

This ability is more than backed up in the statistics. From the 3,881 rides Derek has had in point-to-points only around 9% of them have resulted in falls or being unseated. Given the competitive level of racing these days that is an unbelievable record.

Is it mean for us to wish that Derek only has two winners this weekend so that he might ride his 1,000th winner in front of his many northern supporters the following Saturday at Kirkistown!

No matter where the record is achieved we hope that this achievement gets the recognition it deserves as it is something we are unlikely to see again for a very long time.