Point-to-point graduates among key entries for the festival

The entries for the remaining races at the Cheltenham Festival were released last week, completing the full complement of possible runners for the 28 races set to take place next week. Encouragingly, the representation of Irish point-to-point graduates appears to remain as strong as ever.

An indication of the impact the sector is having at racing’s blue riband jumps festival can be found among the 1,640 horses who have been entered, with 419 of those entered beginning their careers between the flags in Ireland. This is a staggering 26 per cent of all entries at the festival. This, despite the two juvenile races [the Triumph Hurdle and Fred Winter Novices’ Hurdle], in which pointers are unable to compete due to the nature of those races.

Irish point-to-point graduates dominate a number of races, accounting for more than 40 per cent of the entries in six races, including the John Thomas McNamara National Hunt Chase, Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle and RSA Chase.