Autumn schedule is proving just as fruitful in search for top-level horses

The curtain comes down on the autumn campaign this weekend, and it is set to end on a high note, with Sunday’s fixture at Tattersalls having attracted the largest entry of the season thus far.

With many of the older age categories having been slow to get into their stride this term, the autumn schedule has been dominated by the four-year-old maiden division. No fewer than nine fixtures have already produced a divide within the four-year-old category and, with the expectation that at least two of this weekend’s fixtures should add to it, the importance of the pre-Christmas series for trainers has again been demonstrated.

Having established its roots out of an emergency measure introduced following the foot and mouth crisis in 2001, the series is now fully embedded into the model that point-to-point handlers have honed in the years since. Crucially, it is no longer just a back-up option for them to use for their four-year-olds who may have missed a spring opportunity; it is, in fact, targeted with quality stock. 

The subsequent performances on the track bear the fruits of that. In the past three seasons, 78 Grade 1 races have been won by 41 individual horses who started their careers point-to-pointing on these shores. The breakdown of their early grounding within the pointing fields here makes for interesting reading.

Although the potential new star on the block, Fact To File, is one of them, just six of the 41 Grade 1-winning ex-pointers ran in five-year-old maidens, with the overwhelming majority starting out as four-year-olds. That will not come as too much of a surprise to those who follow the sport closely, but perhaps what will be is the relative similarity between the number of Grade 1 winners to have emerged from the spring and autumn terms as four-year-olds.

Of the 35 Grade 1-winning horses in the last three seasons, 19 emerged from the spring, with 15 from the autumn, while Banbridge ran in both campaigns during his four-year-old stint. Given that the bulk of four-year-old races take place within the spring term, that is an incredibly strong showing from a select number of races, suggesting we might well have seen the next Grade 1 star in recent weeks.

Weekend fixtures

Saturday
Boulta, first race 12.00

Sunday
Ballycrystal, first race 12.00
Tattersalls, first race 12.00

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