Dublin and beyond - the first weekend in February is when dreams are both born and realised

Depending on where your interest lies, the first weekend of February can mean very different things.

For most racing fans, south Dublin becomes the centre of the racing universe as the eight Grade 1s of the Dublin Racing Festival are an onslaught of top-class jumps action. It amounts to a realisation of long-held dreams. 

But for those with an eye to the future, the weekend marks the start of a new season of four-year-old maiden point-to-points, to discover those who could be taking a starring role at Dublin Racing Festivals in 2025 and beyond. It's all about beginnings. 

Once again venues on opposite sides of the country, Ballinaboola in Wexford and Bellharbour in Clare, are where we turn in order to kickstart this gripping time for pointing supporters. 

With plenty of opportunities to come in the months ahead, the inclination may be to expect handlers to take a cautious approach to this weekend’s action, using these opening four-year-old contests to test the water and gauge how far forward their youngsters are before unleashing the pick of the crop. But the roll of honour at both venues confirms this is far from the case. 

Two of the last four editions of the Ballinaboola race have been won by subsequent Cheltenham Festival winners in Envoi Allen and Telmesomethinggirl, with the 2018 contest that was won by the now eight-time Grade 1-winning Envoi Allen having also produced a second subsequent multiple Grade 1 scorer.

Multiple Grade 1 winner Appreciate It: beaten in the early four-year-old maiden won by Envoi Allen in 2018Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Appreciate It finished third on that occasion before going on to win the Supreme Novices' Hurdle at Cheltenham by 24 lengths. He was then trained by Pat Doyle, and the Suirview Stables operator has been the handler to follow at Bellharbour, having won eight of the last 12 renewals of the four-year-olds' race, including with multiple graded winner Ball D’Arc.

The contest has eluded him in the last three years and his potential runners this Sunday will not face an easy task, with most stables expecting to hit the ground running, as evident in the price tags that some of the 35 horses who populate the entries for these two races carry. 

Bass Hunter tops that particular chart, having featured among the ten most expensive lots at last summer’s Goffs Arkle sale when Donnchadh Doyle’s Monbeg Stables operation paid €145,000 to acquire the son of Authorized. 

It is certainly a weekend to savour, irrespective of where your interest lies.

Weekend fixtures

Sunday

Ballinaboola, first race 1pm

Ballyvodock, first race 12.30pm

Bellharbour, first race 1pm

Sign up to receive On The Nose, our essential daily newsletter, from the Racing Post. Your unmissable morning feed, direct to your email inbox every morning.