Last season, Michelle Duggan, Patrick Turley, Garrett Power, Hugh Finegan, and Jay Leahy were the five handlers randomly selected from a list of 68 that had trained a mare to win a point-to-point, and each received a €1,000 voucher to be used against the purchase or a mare at the Irish store sales during the Summer.
"In recent years, vast improvements have been made to the National Hunt mares’ programme in both Britain and Ireland.
"In 2019 alone, both prize money for mares-only contests and mares-only black type opportunities increased by 5%.
"You need only look at the success of mares such as Honeysuckle and Magic Of Light, who both graduated from Irish point-to-points, to see what can be achieved with mares.”