Pointing review in right direction

It would, therefore, be a cruel blow if it became a casualty of the hunting ban, having survived and prospered for more than two centuries.

Over the years little has altered. Improvements in the standard of preparation of horses and riding, as well as the facilities for treatment, have been made. Medical and safety requirements for jockeys now reflect the advances in technology on personal protection and treatment, but the basic set up has not changed. They are run by the hunt for the hunt with a volunteer work force.

It is very much in the Jockey Club's interest to keep the sport alive. It represents a stepping stone into National Hunt racing. The shorter distances and slightly smaller fences encourage young horses to develop. Jockeys learn valuable lessons without succumbing to the wrath of the Jockey Club or the owners, such as when a certain jockey, having won his race, unsaddled his horse and went straight into the changing room without weighing in. As it was the owner, philosophical at the resulting disqualification, said : "It's only £100. The horse will run again and win."

The higher stakes of National Hunting racing would have likely provoked a different reaction. Officials such as stewards, judges, starters learn their job and the less formal regime encourages the enthusiastic and inept alike.

Every Saturday in the season sees a host of owners flocking to the course with their families to see their very moderate horse run for a very modest purse that will hardly cover the week's training fees. There are ten-year-old horses running who have never won a race, nor are ever likely to, but will be out again this season. Such enthusiasm is more about involvement, camaraderie and enjoying a day out in pleasing surroundings than competitiveness.

Having said that, there is a high level of professionalism needed to be competitive in today's sport that highlights changes not everyone finds acceptable. More horses are being trained alongside National Hunt horses in semi-professional yards. The rules state that a separate member of the family to the permit holder must be responsible for the pointers but all the horses benefit from the same facilities and work routine. Anthony Stirk, veterinary officer of the Jockey Club and a Point to Point steward, privately researched the racing community and found an equally divided opinion of approval on training pointers alongside NH horses. He disapproves. "I consider that it disadvantages the true amateur," he said.

Gill Wolford developed her interest at a young age. "I only had one horse and hunted all winter," she said. "I was dead keen to Point to Point so Dad sent me to Mick Easterby's to learn the ropes a bit. Then we bumbled along at home and did quite well."

This started her successful and serious involvement with Point to Pointers. Gill now trains point to pointers alongside her husband, Tim's National Hunt horses on their farm in North Yorkshire. "We needed a bit more scope for running horses at different places and distances so Tim got a licence," she said. "So far as facilities are concerned, a lot of pointers use ours anyway. It never upset me before, in fact it was an ego boost when one of my horses beat one from a yard I'd considered more professional than mine."

Perhaps like any equestrian discipline the sport needs to be professional to survive. After all the vast majority of the spectators are 'punters' and only there for a bet, so the more accomplished the horse and jockey the more exciting the race.

As in all phases of life money plays a large part. Gone are the days when the farmer had a pointer that he hunted all winter and raced in the spring. Farming is in a depressed state so the finance is not available. Neither do the families stay on the farm as much as they used to. In the past all the farmers' children rode, started in pony club, went eventing, wanted to have a go racing and were able to because of family support. Stephen Swires, one of the few jockeys to have ridden a hundred winners pointing and a hundred winners under rules, started that way.

"I was lucky," he said "I had someone who could buy me a horse. I worked from home so could have three or four days off a week to race. People need to earn a living these days. There are not as many young people coming into the sport. They can't afford to."

Farmers can no longer afford to subsidise their children in the same way so there is neither the finance nor the same level of support available.

Changes will have to be radical. First to the wall would be the qualification requirement, recently altered from seven to four days hunting. For those qualifying novices, who seem intent on turning themselves inside out throughout the whole day, this will probably be more like a blessing. But some, like Wayne Burnell, a joint master of the Badsworth and Bramham Moor Hunt, who trains and rides from his family home near Wetherby, finds it useful. "I hunt them properly," he said. "It's a way of getting them fit and keeps them sweet, the more you can do out hunting the better."

Probably the most serious issue is the question of the course, the majority of which lie on private land at present. The land owner may well be an avid hunt supporter but not show quite the same enthusiasm for racing. He could always organise it himself of course and pocket the proceeds, but his volunteer workforce would need something more substantial than a pat on the back for doing it.

As change is inevitable it could be the time has come for a complete makeover. Research shows that it is beneficial for horses to be introduced to work as two-year-olds. Their bones and tendons develop giving the animal a longer working life expectancy. Introducing races for four-year-olds would educate them gradually.

Perhaps it should lean towards Irish racing, which has a more commercial attitude. Young horses start in Point to Points but very few continue after the age of seven. Those showing ability are sold into National Hunt racing. Those with no ability are sold for other purposes.

Many feel it is time for a review of the whole licensing structure, although the difficulties of policing and defining the amateur status are recognised. The introduction of reduced weights has been mooted, and of course allowing licensed trainers to run horses under their own name. A handicap system would improve open races that become very uncompetitive due to a horse becoming dominant in a certain area.

Nothing stands still in this life, nor should it. But change should indicate improvement. Changes were inevitable, even without the hunting ban. With fewer jockeys coming into the sport, yet more horses, more fixtures and more races due to more starters there was more governance on the horizon.

If such measures were adopted there is no doubt it would take the whole ethos out of the sport. It would be the end for the true amateur. Like me, who decided to run my event horse in the member's race for a bit of fun. Also that most hotly contested race on the card, the member's would go. Virtually everyone at some time tries to win the farmer's cup or the member's cup, simply for the prestige.

Point to Pointing will survive. A contingency plan is in place but its composition is, as yet, unknown. "There is no future in publicising it until it's needed," said Lucy Breck, point to point spokeswoman at the Jockey Club. "Talks are on-going. This season will happen as usual, as for the future, point to points will definitely continue."

Whether it becomes second-rate National Hunt racing remains to be seen.

Published: 31/12/2004