AMID the ongoing suspension of point-to-point racing here, Cheltenham 2021 could scarcely have provided a more timely platform to showcase the importance of this great sector with a record breaking 13 races won by horses who started their careers in the point-to-point fields across the length and breadth of the country.

When the two juvenile hurdles are excluded from an analysis of the week’s performances, that winning haul takes in half of all the races that were run across the four days, a fact that is even more impressive when it is considered that pointing graduates accounted for just under 30% of runners. That is an impressive ratio by any standards.