LOCAL Fine Gael TD Micheal Creed paid one of his regular visits to the Muskerry point-to-point in Aughabullogue last Sunday but his first as Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

Welcomed to the fixture over the airwaves by Jack Murphy, landowner of the Dromatimore venue, the Minister said he was delighted to attend his local meeting. He also stated that he was pleased, through his role in cabinet, to support the sport in general through increased funding as point-to-pointing was the foundation of racing in Ireland. Frankie Ward, who has liaised between the Irish Point-to-Point Handlers Association, the Minister and Horse Racing Ireland over the past few months, also addressed the crowd, saying how important the financial injection was to point-to-pointing. It was “much like a blood transfusion,” she commented.

“We have the best sport, the best jockeys and the best horses in the world,” Ward continued, “and we should capitalise on this.”

Minister Creed later explained how he had been made aware of the problems in the sport at an informal meeting during the summer and asked those present, who included the multi-tasking Gerry Kelleher and Eugene O’Sullivan, to come up with some proposals for him. “It’s better to light a candle than curse the darkness,” he quoted.

Ward then came on board and the Minister was impressed when she came back with a very coherent plan which he was pleased to work with to revitalise the game. “If we don’t look after point-to-pointing, which is the foundation of the sport, we won’t have the huge edifice that is Irish racing,” he stated.

Minister Creed had a share in a horse some years ago which was trained by O’Sullivan but as neither man could come up with its name, its ability was rather evident. The local TD can no longer be listed as an owner but the good news is that his daughter Ruth, who will be 11 in two weeks’ time and accompanied her father to the meeting on Sunday, has started taking riding lessons.

Among the handlers who spoke to Minister Creed on Sunday were Colin Bowe and Michael Winters, while many locals queued up to shake his hand.

The Irish National Hunt Steelepchase Committee, who had also been in contact with the Minister regarding increased funding for point-to-pointing in recent months, was represented at Aghabullogue by its point-to-point committee chairman Philip McLernon, Michael Doyle who was the INHS Representative at the meeting and registrar Josh Byrne.