THE point-to-point season covers the eight months from the beginning of October through to the bank holiday weekend in June. However, the reality is that for so many of the yards across the country, particularly those focussed on producing horses to run in four and five-year-old maidens, it is a year-long, 12-month business.

The curtain will fall on the 2017/18 campaign at just after 4.30pm in Ballingarry on Monday afternoon but that will just herald in the next phase of the process – that of restocking yards around the country. This year, that process has begun even earlier, with the introduction of the Tattersalls Ireland May Store Sale, in part a consequence of the ever-growing influence of the point-to-point buyer in the store market.