Volume of British racing and global Flat market is draining pool of older horses

The opening two weekends of the season featured a total of four scheduled winners' races that attracted a combined 28 entries, yet worryingly half of those were for horses who were yet to win a maiden.

At Moira last week in the mares' winners-of-two race only two of the six entries were winners and it was those two who were declared to run, creating a match.

In Britain, the drain of smart Flat horses to race elsewhere across the globe appears to have pointed prospecting National Hunt owners beyond the established route of four-year-old maidens. They are now open to sourcing older maiden winners and even placed horses from the point-to-point sphere, with the volume of racing in Britain apparently providing a lucrative outlet for the lesser Irish pointers.