THE pace at which Declan Queally’s remarkably successful season has continued at while showing no sign of abating is worthy of much merit.

The Waterford handler has so far saddled 32 runners and a Castlelands double last Sunday brought his tally of winners for the season to 16 to maintain a strike-rate of exactly 50%.

Notably, many of those 16 winners have been achieved by horses that have joined the Queally operation this season from other yards.

That lofty strike rate has kept him to the fore in the handler’s leaderboard for the past five months, and despite sending out 77 fewer runners this season than Colin Bowe, Queally is just two winners adrift of the 10-time champion handler ahead of this weekend’s action.

In a game of numbers, the scales are tilted in Bowe’s favour with the reigning champion having already taken out hunter certificates for no fewer than 60 four-year-olds.

However, the results of the coming weeks will prove to be very influential in deciding the outcome of the hander’s title, as behind Queally, Donnchadh Doyle is just two further winners adrift.

His Wexford stable, which shared the handler’s title with Bowe in 2015, is also enjoying a fruitful campaign with a strike rate of 40%.

Unlike in previous years where Bowe has often dominated, seven handlers enter the final months of the season separated by just six winners.

THE countdown to this year’s Cheltenham Festival is almost at an end, but before the point-to-point world turns its attention to four of the biggest days in the National Hunt racing calendar, this weekend’s domestic point-to-point action will be keenly observed as handlers seek to secure the final spots at the Tattersalls Festival Sale which takes place after racing on Thursday.

By the time their 2023 crop of winning and placed pointers are offered on the hallowed ground of the Cheltenham winners’ enclosure, the hope will be that many a former point-to-pointer will have been cheered back to the number one spot in the days preceding it.

After all the Cheltenham Festival is one of the biggest platforms for the strength of the sport to be displayed.

Twelve months ago, the winner’s tally for former Irish pointers stood at 11 as they won over 40% of the races that they were eligible for, and it was the second consecutive year that the Festival successes broke into a double-figure total of winners.

This year, hopes will rest greatly on star names such as Constitution Hill and a revitalized Shishkin to fly the flag for the sport in Grade 1 contests, but it is the Festival Hunter Chase that will be the most anticipated race for point-to-point supporters.

Barry O’Neill and David Christie both agonisingly missed out on their first Festival victories 12 months ago, and few could begrudge them that long sought-after initial Cheltenham Festival triumph this time around.

IT is fair to say that last Sunday’s Borris House card looks to have thrown up a number of exciting recruits headlined by Tellherthename (96+). (pictured left).

The Malinas gelding made all, and was sent clear at the midway point before easing up passing the post with a circuit to race. That all contributed to the race clocking a time 15 seconds quicker than the average, while the manner in which he picked up again a circuit later was impressive as he and Joyeux Allen pulled 27 lengths clear of their rivals. Both look particularly smart.

Future winners

The Casltlelands equivalent is also a race that could likely produce a number of future track winners as Queensbury Boy (93+) did not looking to be short of staying power when mastering Quebecois.

In Ballycahane, Kap D’Ange (91+) offered a notable form boost to the two horses that finished in front of him in Oldtown last month as he prevailed in a tight finish, 30 minutes after Jack N Jones (84++) had dominated a more strongly-run mares’ only four-year-old maiden.

The five four-year-olds that contested the Tyrella maiden in the age division encountered quicker conditions and it was Vision De Maine (90+) who coped best with them, showing plenty of speed in the process.