O’Connor ready for new point-to-point season

POINT-to-point fans will be out in force at Rathcannon, County Limerick on Sunday, where the first meeting of the 2011/12 season is set to take place.
The fixture is run under the auspices of the Limerick Foxhounds and will signal the start of an almost nine-month campaign between the flags, which will come to a conclusion over the Whit Bank Holiday weekend next June.
The Turf Club has introduced a raft of changes to the rules for the new season, which are designed to improve the standard all around and one of those includes the introduction of a camera to aid the judges at the conclusion of a race.
This has been a contentious issue in the past, with the final result determined by the naked eye, courtesy of a group of people standing on a trailer at the finish line. It is now envisaged that a camera will be available at the majority of meetings to aid the officials on duty and this should bring about an end to any controversy in that area.
Another change of rule applies to open lightweight races, where up to now a horse could only win six such events in any one season. This has been altered and there is now no restriction on the number of races a horse can win.
An allowance of 5Ib can now be claimed by novice riders, who have not ridden more than a combination of 20 winners between the track and points-to-points, while mares will be allocated a 5Ib sex allowance in all races for the coming season.
The commencement of the pointing season signals the start of a busy campaign and eight-time champion jockey, Derek O’Connor will be going all out to retain his title.
The popular Tubber pilot has been the dominant figure in the sport over the past decade and his record of eight championships in-a-row speaks for itself. He has broken every record possible during that golden era and the 29-year-old is looking forward to the new season with relish.
“I can’t wait to get going again and I’m in good shape,” said O’Connor. “I’ve been riding out for Pat Doyle, Sam Curling, Michael Hourigan and Robert Tyner on a regular basis of late and they all have some very nice horses to go to war with. My brother, Paurick, has a really nice yard of horses this year too and we enjoyed a lot of success together last season, so I’ll be hoping for more of the same this time round,” confessed the award-winning rider.
Obviously, packing so much into each weekend means O’Connor has to endure a lot of travelling but the reigning champion sees it as all part of the job.
“I’ve been up to the North quite a lot in the past month or so and I don’t mind that, as I would never have won a championship were it not for the northern circuit. Wilson Dennison is a brilliant owner and I ride all his horses up there, which are trained by Colin McKeever. David Christie and Ian Ferguson also supply me with a lot of winners and I’d be lost without their support. All the local trainers in Clare and Galway are good supporters too, while the Cork and Waterford circuit has been lucrative for me in past,” concluded O’Connor, who tasted big-race success when riding two winners at last March’s Cheltenham Festival.
Sunday’s meeting, which kicks off at 2pm, has attracted almost 100 entries for the six-race card and a big crowd is expected at the Shannonside track.

Shark attack at Listowel
JOHN ‘Shark’ Hanlon is one of the most popular characters in Irish racing. The larger-than-life Kilkenny man registered his biggest training successes to date when sending out 20/1 shot Alfa Beat to land back-to-back victories in the Guinness Kerry National at Listowel last week.
Successful in 2010, when trained by Charles Byrnes, Alfa Beat joined Hanlon when sold for €70,000 at Doncaster last spring and, ironically, the victorious seven-year-old foiled a spectacular gamble on another Byrnes-trained horse in the Wednesday feature, which attracted a crowd of 26,562 to the popular North Kerry track.
Barry Geraghty, successful on the horse last year, again took the ride on Alfa Beat and the sweet-jumping grey travelled well throughout. Approaching five out, Geraghty sent his mount on about his business and the pair were never headed when running on strongly in the closing stages to foil a major punt on the Byrnes-trained, Philip Enright-ridden runner-up Bideford Legend (10/1–4/1F) by three and a half lengths.
Dessie Hughes’ Lenabane ran a cracking race under Roger Loughran to fill third with the Ruby Walsh-ridden Galway Plate winner, Blazing Tempo a neck adrift in fourth.
In-form Hanlon, who is really making a go of it since setting up as a trainer just a few short years ago, explained how he came to have the winner.
“I met Tom Foley, who trains for Alfa Beat’s owner, Irvin Naylor, in America at the Doncaster sales and he told me to pick out a horse for him that might win the Aintree National. People said I gave too much for him as he was high in the handicap, but it’s unreal he has won here for the second year in-a-row,” said a delighted Hanlon.
“I knew he was in good form and working well but I thought his chance was gone on the soft ground. Barry gave him a terrific ride. We’ll give him a few spins now in hurdle races to protect his handicap mark over fences and Aintree next April is his major target,” concluded the winning trainer.
Ruby Walsh, who had to settle for fourth in the National, partnered his first winner since returning from injury when guiding Willie Mullins’ 5/1 chance, Bundle Of Fun, to success in last Thursday’s three-mile Devon Inn Handicap Hurdle. This was Walsh’s first success since crushing vertebrae in his neck in a fall at Killarney in July and the Kildare rider will be hoping for an injury-free run as the upcoming jumping season gathers momentum on both sides of the Irish Sea.
Just four went to post for Thursday’s winners’ bumper at Listowel, with victory going to John Kiely’s well-backed 4/6 favourite Saint Gervais, ridden by Derek O’Connor.
Successful under O’Connor at the Galway Festival – where he slammed subsequent Bellewstown winner Maller Tree by nine lengths – Saint Gervais eased to the head of affairs just over a furlong down and with his rider barely moving a muscle, the six-year-old son of Revoque passed the post three and a half lengths to the good over runner-up Owega Star.