As we settle into the spring season, the scarcity of runners in point-to-points continues to be the major issue with our sport. Last Sunday there were just 50 runners on the six-race card at Killeagh. That was down from 69 a year ago. Numbers at Ballinaboola held up a bit better but even their 80 runners was down significantly from 93 a year ago – and there were two Saturday meetings on the corresponding weekend in 2014 as well.

My own local meeting earlier this month in Templenacarriga had just six races and 52 runners, a fair drop from the 93 horses and eight races we had the previous year.

This is a deeply worrying trend, particularly as we await the first four-year-old races next month. So where are all the horses? Well, the main problem is the drop in the foal crop during the recession. Smaller breeders were squeezed out as market became more elite.

There are also less family-owned and trained horses on the points circuit. The sport has become a victim of its own success – getting more professional as the number of graduates to go on to big-race success on the track grows.

This in turn has damaged the hunt clubs and organising committees who find themselves down on entries and down on volunteers to help stage the event. The field sizes will strengthen again in time, there is no doubt, but that could take a couple of years and by then we could easily have lost a handful of fixtures from the calendar.

That is why Horse Racing Ireland has got to help the point-to-point committees with some extra funds.

In their pre-Christmas statement, HRI “approved in principle an increase in grants for staging point-to-point meetings with details to be announced in January following further discussions with the INHS Committee”.

Yesterday HRI told me: “The issue will be considered by the Board at their next meeting on February 9th.” Everyone who depends on point-to-points for a living deserves a straight answer on this one.

Michael Moore is the owner of Ballincurrig House Stud, a leading sales consignor. He is also the Irish agent for Brightwells and can be contacted on 087 6481949.