Soft going for Nenagh Point to Point

By Thomas Conway

Biblical volumes of rain have wreaked havoc across the south and east of Ireland in recent weeks, damaging homes, destroying livelihoods, and disrupting the sporting calendar.

Fortunately, however, North Tipperary has avoided the brunt, and although rainfall has been significant, the highly anticipated North Tipperary Foxhounds Point to Point meeting in Nenagh next Sunday will go ahead, safely and successfully. That is the firm message being projected by Seamus O Slatarra, secretary of the Point to Point.

Speaking last Sunday, the ground might be officially classified as “soft,” but that won’t deter a considerable crowd of racing enthusiasts from congregating at the Lisboney venue this weekend. Crowd size varies, says Seamus, but in general, “it usually depends on the entries.” Every horse will bring five or six people with it, so a good entry means a good crowd.

There are 87 entries for the six race card with no divides, starting off at 1.00pm with a 4-year-old maiden, won for the last two years by Holycross trainer Pat Doyle, with both horses subsequently going onto earn wins on the track, and he is bidding for a hat-trick with two entries again.

Most of the horses you’ll see zipping around point to point courses across the country will be four-year-olds, and the best of them will graduate on to greater heights.

“A lot of the horses you’ll see racing eventually progress from the point-to-point field to the racecourse, if they’re good enough. It’s a nursery for the younger horses,” says Seamus.

“There’s a few trainers there and they specialise in this business, and they move on to the sales in Cheltenham or somewhere and they could get five or six figure sums for a horse if they show potential, if they win a good race,” he adds.

Younger Jockeys

It might be a “nursery” for younger horses, but it’s also an academy for younger jockeys, male and female. The likes of Katie Walsh and Nina Carbery learned their trade at tracks like Nenagh, and this year there is a dedicated open race for ladies, at 2:30pm.

The structure of the point to point season is interesting. There is both a spring season, which runs from January to the June Bank Holiday weekend, and an autumn season, which is shorter and more concise, extending for six or seven weeks in October/November.

If you want to get a taste of the popularity of point to point amongst the horse-racing grassroots, however, just take a look at how packed the calendar is. Mid-season there might be three or four meets taking place on the one Sunday, in various locations around the country. Generally speaking, they are regionalised, although competition between the various events does exist.

Nenagh, then, is not just another destination on the Irish point to point circuit. The meet is steeped in history. There’s rich tradition of racing in the area that stretches as far back as 1908, when the North Tipperary Foxhounds established their first point to point meet at Blean, Toomevara.

There was, of course, an old racecourse in Nenagh at Lisboney, and that was used as a point to point track in the very early days, before the event was subsequently moved to Grange and then Stereame. It seems fitting that the current track is situated just across the road from the old racecourse, at Lisboney.

Flick onto the Irish Point to Point website and you’ll get a neat little description of that current track. According to Galway rider Derek O’Connor, the most successful point to point jockey of all time, Nenagh is “a great track, very fair and simple to ride.” He goes on to note that “the best horse usually wins around here once they can handle tough conditions,” suggesting that the going isn’t exactly smooth, and that horses and jockeys will face a challenge.

Those who attend next Sunday’s meet will primarily be racing aficionados eager to survey the four-year-olds and spot emerging talent. But for those with next to no knowledge of the horse racing world it could prove an intriguing way to spend a Sunday afternoon. After all, the 2007 Grand National winner - the Gordon Elliot-trained “Silver Birch” - once swept around the track at Lisboney. Just goes to show: if you can master Nenagh, you can master Aintree.