Catalogue point-to-point rule change postponed after breeders voice concerns

The International Cataloguing Standards Committee (ICSC) European sub-committee has announced that the planned change to the treatment of point-to-point performances in sale company catalogues in National Hunt sales due to be implemented from January 1 has been postponed.

The headline proposed change was that point-to-point performances would be classed as wins (combined with racecourse wins) in catalogues for sales which are designated to be ‘National Hunt’ sales.

The change was announced in August after consultation with the British and Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Associations.

However, since the announcement a significant number of National Hunt breeders and other industry personnel have voiced concerns about the proposed change, so both TBAs have requested that the rule change is not implemented to allow further time for the evaluation of possible different point-to-point rule options for National Hunt Sales catalogue pages.

Therefore the rules for National Hunt pages will remain the same as previously in sales catalogues for now, with no change implemented for 2022.

William Flood, ITBA NH Committee Chairman, said: “We thank Tattersalls Ireland and Goffs for working with the ICSC European sub-committee to postpone the proposed rule change after significant feedback from ITBA members, consignors and bloodstock agents to our ITBA National Hunt Committee.

"We will work to look for a solution with the sales companies on point-to-point rules.”

In a joint statement, Simon Kerins (Tattersalls Ireland) and Nick Nugent (Goffs) said: “We remain committed to improving clarity around the presentation of form in National Hunt catalogues and in particular address the clear anomaly whereby catalogues have listed any point-to-point performers to be runners for the dam, but do not consider a winner of such a contest to be a winner for the mare.

"We appreciate the feedback from National Hunt breeders and will continue to work together proactively on a solution in early 2022."

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