Autumn plans change again due to insurance issues

THE ongoing insurance difficulties facing the point-to-point sector have necessitated a second round of changes to the autumn fixture list with the fixtures scheduled for next month at both Mainstown and Tattersalls to be replaced.

Earlier this month the Tipperary Foxhounds and Wicklow Foxhounds lost their fixtures at Lisronagh and Tinahely respectively on November 6th and 7th due to the insurance difficulties, with the INHSC bringing forward the Louth Foxhounds meeting at Tattersalls to fill the void.

This replacement fixture proved lucrative for handlers and owners with the first three horses home in one of the four-year-old maiden races realising a combined sum in excess of €1 million in the sales ring subsequently.

Importantly for the Louth Foxhounds it also allowed them to run a point-to-point before their insurance cover expired and would have left just the United Foxhounds fixture at Ballindenisk on Saturday December 4th on this weekend.

To fill this latest void, the INHSC has announced that the Westmeath & Longford fixture at Corbeagh House which had been due to run on December 12th, will move forward a week to December 5th with the Killinick Harriers committee holding an additional fixture on the same afternoon.

The programme of races for this Lingstown fixture, which will be the second Sunday in succession that the Co. Wexford venue hosts a point-to-point, will mirror the programme that had been due to run at Tattersalls.

This will be key for handlers of four-year-old mares who would have been left without an opportunity to run on the weekend otherwise.

The reshuffling of the pre-Christmas December fixtures has resulted in just one fixture being lost from that month, and perhaps more impressive is that should all five take place it would complete an autumn programme of 31 fixtures, just three short of the 34 which had been programmed when the autumn calendar was released in mid-July. No mean feat under the two-pronged threat of Covid and insurance difficulties.

See page 57 for amended fixture list.