Belharbour in Co Clare was the only survivor of the weekend’s point-to-point action after Tyrella and Carrigtwohill both fell to the weather.

At this stage in the season when there is more than one meeting per day, Derek O’Connor and Jamie Codd tend to avoid one another like the plague. However, circumstances meant their meeting on Sunday was unavoidable and it turned into quite the forgettable day for Jamie. He not only drew a blank, but he had to sit back and watch his predatory pursuer record an impressive four firsts, reducing Jamie’s lead to 12 wins.

Win number one of the day for Derek was in the first four-year-old maiden of the year, courtesy of Children’s List, trained by Pat Doyle. All racehorses share the same official birthday of 1 January. A massive coincidence this is not; it is simply done to group horses into age brackets for the purpose of running in races confined by age. As a horse cannot run in a point-to-point until it turns four (on 1 January), the nine horses engaged in the four-year-old maiden on Sunday were all making their pointing debuts.

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These are the races that are most closely watched by prospective buyers scouting for the next National Hunt superstar. Winning a point-to-point at the tender age of four, especially on debut, gives a horse the potential to earn a big price tag at the sales, which is where a large portion will be destined.

It is hard to quantify how good a horse is when it is running against other newcomers, but there was one small yardstick in the race: Capbreton, who finished second, has some placed form from France. The experience of those races stood to him and he did indeed look the most adept as he made the running, taking the field along at a fine gallop. So the way in which Children’s List tackled and passed Capbreton to win going away was indeed an impressive and eye-catching performance and one that earned him an appreciable rating of 95+.

Robert Tyner also enjoyed a successful day, sending out three winners (all ridden by Derek O’Connor). He has recently hit a rich vein of form and his horses are proving very hard to beat. He is now sitting at the top of the handlers’ table with 12 winners, just ahead of Vincent Halley and David Christie, and is the leading fancy to regain the handlers’ title this season.