Point-to-point form to the fore at Tipperary

The new point-to-point season kicked off in Ireland at the weekend, a process which will bring a steady stream of new recruits to the track in due course. In the meantime, punters could be well advised to take some clues from previous pointing campaigns when studying today's Tipperary card.

Leader's Choice, trained near Middleton in County Cork by Daniel Murphy, provides a case in point. This mare beat a subsequent winner in a maiden at Lisronagh last December and showed promise in chasing home Miss Eyecatcher in a mares' bumper at today's venue in the spring.

Miss Eyecatcher won another bumper a fortnight later and returned from a break to make it three from three when beating the well-fancied gelding Dos Picas at Listowel last month. Not many mares win three bumpers, lending the form genuine substance.

Murphy has given Leader's Choice three runs over hurdles – qualifying her for handicaps with a mark of 95 – and that is put to the test in the 3m Tipperary Centenary Year Handicap Hurdle (3.25).
If excused a poor run at Cork on the second of those three attempts, the daughter of Presenting seems well enough treated. Her fourth at Roscommon in July was a perfectly satisfactory run over an inadequate 2m, and she appreciated the step-up to today's distance in taking third place atListowel.

Perhaps, relative to the quality of her bumper second at least, the value of the Listowel race is open to question, but she finished in front of the Mick Winters-trained Vinnie Luck who won over fences at Sligo last week.