HAVING collected honours elsewhere, including the prestigious Cartier Award, it was hugely appropriate that Sole Power was named Horse of the Year on Monday at the 12th annual Horse Racing Ireland Awards in Dublin.

The Pavilion at Leopardstown was packed with representatives from every sector of the racing and breeding industry to witness the stars of racing and point-to-pointing honoured for their achievements in 2014.

Unfortunately Sabena and David Power were not on hand to receive the accolade from Minister Simon Coveney as they had already left for Hong Kong to see the gelding attempt to enhance his CV further on Sunday.

In their absence it was time for their sons Paddy and Willie to step into the limelight and they revealed that the successes with both Sole Power and Slade Power had been hugely enjoyed by the family and it had “brought them closer together”. Slade Power heads to stud in 2015 while the gelding Sole Power will race on.

Their trainer and part-owner Eddie Lynam was a hugely popular winner of the Flat Award and his expertise in handling the Power runners to win four of the five Group 1 races open to sprinters in England was a masterful achievement.

He also enjoyed Group 2 successes with Anthem Alexander and Agnes Stewart. Asked to choose between his star sprinters Lynam said: “Sole Power is a hell of a horse and makes me look good. He is probably the more exciting of the two. He is electric, more box office.”

It was a day for the trainers as Willie Mullins picked up yet another National Hunt Award, his fifth in the last six years. The sequence was only broken by Davy Russell’s win in 2012.

Mullins and his string have been dominating Irish jumps racing for some years now and 2014 was another incredible year of success from his Closutton yard. Indeed, it was his team at home that came in for special mention as he said: “I am standing here today because of the commitment of my staff.”

He picked out two racing highlights for the year. They were Quevega’s sixth consecutive visit to and win at the Cheltenham Festival and Hurricane Fly’s record-breaking Grade 1 feats. Mullins equalled Ruby Walsh’s five wins in this category.

Another trainer to be honoured was Tom Hogan, handler of Gordon Lord Byron who is also an Irish challenger at Sha Tin this weekend. He was given the Outstanding Achievement Award and this award was open to public vote.

The €2,000 foal, part of whose purchase price was paid for by credit card, Gordon Lord Byron was friendless as a yearling and owner Jessica Cahalan placed him with her boss Tom Hogan where she was the secretary.

Now the winner of some €1.8 million in prize money, the gelding was successful in a Group 1 in Australia in 2014 and also won on British Champions Weekend at Ascot.

Derek O’Connor has been the recipient of the Point-To-Point Award on five occasions and last year he lost out to Jamie Codd.

The Irish Field point-to-point champion for the first time in 2014, he retained his HRI accolade this time and admitted that he enjoyed plenty of luck during the year, and “you need a lot when you are up against Derek O’Connor.” O’Connor also enjoyed a Grade 1 success on Shaneshill at Punchestown for Willie Mullins. The only other multiple winner of this award has been J.T. McNamara in 2006 and 2008.

There was a standing ovation when Brian Kavanagh announced the winner of the Contribution to the Industry Award. Given to Con Collins in 2005 and won since by the Galway Race Committee, Tony Sweeney, Dave Fox, Michael Kinane, Colm Murray, Dermot Weld, Moyglare Stud and Jim Bolger, this year’s recipient was Mick O’Toole.

Though he is retired from training for some years now, Mick O’Toole is still a most familiar face at the races and is hale and hearty in his eighties. Clearly emotional when he went on stage to accept the award, he paid tribute to many who had helped him in his career, making special mention of Dessie Hughes with whom he teamed up for many great successes. “We never had a cross word in our lives,” he remarked.

O’Toole trained many well known horses, especially over jumps and Davy Lad’s Gold Cup win was an obvious highlight. He also enjoyed classic success on the flat with Dickens Hill and his legacy continues through his son Ciaran and daughter Mags.

The Racegoers Consultative Forum collates lots of information throughout the years from its regional members and these are used as the basis for selecting the Racecourse of the Year. Firstly they presented four special category awards, one each to Galway and Punchestown and two to Leopardstown.

Last year also Leopardstown won two of the four categories but were short-headed for the main award by Dundalk. There was no mistake this time however and Dublin’s only racecourse scooped the main prize which was accepted by outgoing chairman David McGrath and chief executive Pat Keogh.

The seven principal award winners received one-off bronze pieces by Birr, Co Offaly sculptor Siobhan Bulfin which were specially commissioned. The day was expertly handled by Ivan Yates as master of ceremonies.