Irish point-to-point graduates continue to break records, as we are now more than halfway through the national hunt season.
The opening weekend of February was highlighted by a staggering seven graded successes, four of which included Grade 1 victories. All of these Grade 1 victories were captured on home soil at the Dublin Racing Festival in Leopardstown.
Honeysuckle was the first graduate to enjoy success, as she scored her third Grade 1 victory, extending her unbeaten run to eight straight victories, a sequence that stretches back to a 15-length success in a Dromahane four-year-old maiden for Mark O’Hare and Jerry Cosgrave in April 2018.
Notebook, Asterion Forlonge, and Faugheen (pictured below) are others, who also found success among Grade 1 company at the two-day festival.
These successes merely followed on from the record-breaking success point-to-pointers enjoyed in January where 158 races were won by former Irish Point-to-Point graduates under rules.
The previous record for January was 147 which was achieved back in 2018 but this was surpassed this year by 11 further wins.
The John Walsh point-to-point graduate Fiddlerontheroof, who has now recorded back-to-back successes, tasted his first Grade 1 success in the Unibet Tolworth novices´ hurdle at Sandown at the beginning of January for Colin Tizzard, in the hands of Robbie Power.
Champion Bumper winner Envoi Allen was another graduate to land a Grade 1 success in January, following up on his win at Fairyhouse when beating Abacadabras by one and a half lengths. The son of Muhtahir, preserved his unbeaten record when scoring in the Baroneracing.com Royal Bond novice hurdle.
Total Recall vindicated the promise of his third-placed effort on his seasonal debut at Clonmel when securing victory in the Grade A Goffs Thyestes chase at Gowran Park. The gelding started his career with Gerard Neilan and was an impressive winner of his point-to-point maiden at Rathmorrisey, getting off the mark at the fourth time of asking.
January Highlights included:
Grade One successes for Fiddlerontheroof (Colin Tizzard) and Envoi Allen (Gordon Elliott).
Grade Two successes for Mossy Fenn (Nigel Twiston-Davies), Andy Dufrense (Gordon Elliott), Magic of Light (Jessica Harrington), Harry Senior (Colin Tizzard) and Ramses de Teillee (David Pipe).
Grade Three successes for Oldgrangewood (Dan Skelton), Carefully Selected (Willie Mullins) and Minella Melody (Henry De Bromhead).
Grade A success for Total Recall (Willie Mullins).
Listed successes for Silver Forever (Paul Nicholls), Ard Abhainn (Gordon Elliott), Burrows Edge (Nicky Henderson) and Maire Banrigh (Dan Skelton).
