WITH Christmas out of the way, most people involved in equestrianism won’t take much of an interest in racing now until the Dublin and Cheltenham Festivals, but there were winners over the New Year period for a few people connected with both spheres.

Two of these were recorded on New Year’s Eve, the first at Punchestown where the Alfred Buller-bred nine-year-old gelding Sammy Smart (Kalanisi - Fancy Fisher, by Clerkenwell) justified favouritism in the near two and a half-mile chase for the Thomas Gibney yard.