GORDON Elliott has made no secret of his great desire to win a first trainers’ title having come up short in a quest to dethrone Willie Mullins in recent seasons.

One of the tactics that he has employed in his attempt to make this dream a reality has seen him investing heavily in the purchase of young horses from the point-to-point sphere. The recent evidence would suggest that this has certainly proven to be a rewarding path to pursue.

Following the announcement of Gigginstown House Stud’s intended phasing out of racing in the first half of 2019, the 2019/20 season saw Elliott and bloodstock agent Mouse O’Ryan leapfrog the likes of Tom Malone and Highflyer Bloodstock to become the biggest spenders on Irish point-to-pointers.

Having forked out just over £500,000 on a total of eight horses at public sales in the season leading up to Michael O’Leary’s shock announcement, that figure had quickly multiplied to just over £2million last season.

This despite the Covid-19 pandemic bringing the season to a premature end before the spring sales season, which generates the bulk of the season’s sales revenue, could take place.

Although being only very recent purchases, that shopping spree has already produced a number of notable performers, including the Grade 1 Royal Bond winner Ballyadam (Colin McKeever), alongside the likes of Queens Brook (Aidan Fitzgerald) who finished third in Cheltenham Champion Bumper and the still unbeaten Hollow Games (Ellen Doyle) and Clondaw Secret (Mick Goff).

The aforementioned £2million spend does not include Elliott’s private purchases away from the sales ring, which also featured Donnchadh Doyle’s Borris House runner-up Magic Tricks who was one of four winners for Meath trainer at Navan last Saturday, all of whom came from the point-to-point fields since 2018.

Among that four-timer was Andy Dufresne, whose Grade 3 victory was a ninth black type success for Elliott with his ex-point-to-pointers this season, with the Irish point-to-point fields accounting for almost half of his top level successes in this country since the resumption of racing in the summer.

By last weekend, the Cullentra Stables trainer had won a total of 38 races this season with horses that started their careers in point-to-points, accounting for over one-third of his winners in Ireland this season, which is certainly a big stamp of approval from Elliott for the calibre of horses he feels are running between the flags at present.

Elliott is not alone in increasing his focus on the point-to-point fields when seeking young stock for owners, with Henry De Bromhead in particular employing a similar tactic.

Like Elliott’s stable star Envoi Allen, De Bromhead’s Honeysuckle is a product of the point-to-point sphere, and behind her five Grade 1 winning streak is further evidence of the riches trainers are sourcing from the sport.

Arguably of more note, over half of the 59 winners that had emerged from his Knockeen Stables by the middle of this week had run in a point-to-point at the start of their careers, with the total of 33 already coming close to the total that he had achieved in each of the last two seasons.

Last season De Bromhead had already doubled the number of his track winners that came from point-to-pointing compared with just four years earlier, and it further highlights the growing move towards point-to-pointers at all levels when sourcing future track winners.

In spite of the ongoing pandemic, recent purchases from both men suggests that the successes they have enjoyed has ensured that their focus on point-to-pointers remains unwavering.

THREE of the most progressive performers in the winners division could be set to clash in tomorrow’s Irish National Hunt Steeplechase Committee Supporting Point-to-Pointing Winners Final at Oldcastle, the highlight of the autumn campaign. Ask D’Man, High Stakes and Templebredin are among the potential runners in the €5,000 contest.

There is a good geographic spread of entries for the race, with that trio alone representing handlers based in Fermanagh, Wicklow and Tipperary.

Should High Stakes be successful and take home the €3,500 first prize, he would be the first horse this season to move onto the four-winner mark, although John Walsh’s six-year-old does hold an alternative entry at Stradbally on the same afternoon and there is a notable difference in the number of entries both races have received.

Despite such a valuable prize being up for grabs, the race has only attracted eight entries which is an obvious disappointment considering the investment by the INHSC, with the Stradbally winner-of-three contest receiving 24 entries and the winner-of-two race at Boulta drawing 12 entries.

The focus on improving the prize money offered to older horses is welcome and certainly much-needed, however with this small entry considered alongside the take up for those one-off older maidens that have featured the €1,000 bonuses in recent years, it is difficult to quantify the impact of these one-off races and whether such a valuable investment could have a greater influence if implemented through a number of different race series.

The Point-to-Point Authority in Britain have proven particularly adept at introducing series’ for areas that their industry perceive to be in need of improvement and it is a model which could well prove worthy of investigation here.

IT may be a blank day on the track tomorrow on account of the All-Ireland Hurling Final, but it will be the busiest Sunday of the autumn season between the flags, with three fixtures taking place on the one day for the first time this term.

The action at Stradbally is set to get underway one hour earlier than had been scheduled due to the volume of entries that were received, with a total of 155 horses entered which highlights the appetite among handlers for opportunities to run horses on drier ground in the heart of the winter.

This is not a new development. The December fixture at Borris House has typically drawn one of the largest entries of the autumn campaign each year since the Carlow Farmers committee wisely elected to add the late autumn date to the calendar to fill the void that was left by the end of racing at the similarly good ground venue at Ballydarragh.

Stradbally would fall into a similar bracket with their two late spring fixtures being targeted by handlers with good ground horses and it has often been richly rewarded in the past with entries above the 300-mark back in 2009.

After losing both fixtures last spring following the racing shutdown, this first point-to-point at the Laois venue in the autumn term has certainly been well received by connections, and with the revenue that the Carlow Farmers have been able to generate from the entries at this time of year at Borris House, it shows the potential that is there for hunt committees that are lucky enough to have a dry ground venue for racing at this time of the year.