ONE day later than was originally scheduled, following the cancellation of today’s Toomebridge fixture, the 2017/18 point-to-point season commences tomorrow afternoon at Castletown-Geoghegan. It is one of 25 fixtures set to take place over the next nine weeks.

The autumn fixture list and provisional summary itself is broadly in line with last year. The Suir Vale appear in the autumn for the first time in seven years having lost their last two spring fixtures, which will hopefully mark a welcome return for them.

The positioning of the Corbeagh House fixture, which was severely affected by poor scheduling last season, also has to be commended for this season. It will now take place three weeks after Rockfield, is the only Leinster region fixture on November 26th and on a weekend that is vacant of any racing in the north, which should help it to attract additional entries from that region also.

CRITICISM

Whilst they are the positives, the scheduling of the four-year-old mares’ maidens has once again drawn notable criticism. The opportunities within this age category for mares’ has come under scrutiny in the past and it certainly does not appear to have been solved on the evidence of the autumn provisional summary.

The loss of the four-year-old mares’ maiden which was due to take place at Toomebridge today has undoubtedly not aided the schedule, which will now see the seven races within this category take place on just four individual race days.

This is due to two races taking place on Sunday, November 26th, at Boulta and with the Suir Vale’s, while each of the three fixtures which take place on the final day of the autumn campaign – Borris House, Boulta and Tattersalls – are all scheduled to stage four-year-old maidens for mares.

Increasing the number of opportunities for younger mares is a very welcome step, however scheduling the last five of them to take place on two of the last three race days in the autumn is quite counterproductive.

Unsurprisingly, this was one of the issues raised at the recent Irish Point-to-Point Handlers Association meeting.

Acknowledging that deciding the category of the six races which each hunt run at their meetings should continue to remain with the individual hunt committees, the handlers correctly added that the Turf Club should inform hunt committees of any potential clashes which could have a notable impact on their entries, given that it is in everyone’s interest to assemble the largest entry possible.