WITH 18 weeks of racing completed, the 2017/’18 point-to-point season is now well and truly past the midway point. Heading into the busiest two months of the campaign, where 43 meetings will take place over 21 individual racedays (between next week’s first five-meeting weekend of the season and the end of April), the leaderboards in many of the end-of-season award categories are shaping up to be just as tight as always.

Barry O’Neill and Jamie Codd fought out a titanic battle for The Irish Field leading rider title last season, and this year could be just as close, with the reigning champion only two winners ahead of Codd. As was the case last season, O’Neill has been at the head of the jockeys’ leaderboard since the season began.