WHILE other point-to-point handlers in Co Wexford concentrate on winning with four-year-old geldings who are then sold on, Denis Hickey thinks more in the long term.

The Garryrichard Stud owner saddled his first runner of the season at Knockinroe on Sunday and was rewarded for his patience when the six-year-old Buckie Cullen landed the concluding older horses’ maiden on his pointing debut.

Partnered at the Suir Vale Harriers’ meeting by Sean O’Keeffe, the Craigsteel gelding was ridden by the owner/trainer’s son Patrick at the Punchestown Festival when finishing sixth of 12 in a bumper which was restricted to horses who had never previously raced.

“He was big and weak and is just coming to himself now,” said Hickey of his winner who is the fourth of six recorded foals out of the Carroll House mare Carrolleena who was placed in a bumper. North of Ireland amateur Deckie Lavery purchased a three-year-old Doyen half-sister to Buckie Cullen at Tattersalls in August.

THYESTES

This is a family Hickey knows well as Carrolleena was bred at Garryrichard as was her dam Old Clover, an own-sister to Bob Treacy who twice won and was third in the Thyestes Chase when trained by Denis’s late father Michael; he also finished third in the Grade 1 John Durkan Memorial Chase. A son of longtime Garryrichard resident Over The River, Bob Treacy was eight when winning his point-to-point maiden on his fourth start.

Bob Treacy and Old Clover, who ran once in a point-to-point and also bred the Lord Americo mare Treat A Lady (dam of the six-time winner Four Chimneys), were out of the non-winning Banish Misfortune. That mare, who also bred the multiple winners Ragorey and Over The Edge, was by the Garryrichard Stud stallion Master Owen but was purchased by the Hickeys from the McGrath family.

Hickey has five horses to run between point-to-points and the track this season, most of them mares. O’Keeffe (18) rides out for him in the afternoons having first worked mornings with Liz Doyle who provided him with a bumper winner (Cordovan Brown) at Punchestown in October. The two stallions currently standing at Garryrichard are Sageburg, who moved from France in late 2014, and Hillstar, whose first foals are due in the spring.