Racing: Jewels glint amid cold mud of Irish fields

Point-to-pointing in Ireland is, by lore, racing at its rawest, a back to nature pursuit. I now know this to be true. A crowd of around 3,000 attended the Duhallow Hunt's fixture here yesterday and were serviced by three tardis-shaped toilets. You soon learn this is a dangerous ratio. There was, in hindsight understandably, no beer tent.

Point-to-pointing in Ireland is, by lore, racing at its rawest, a back to nature pursuit. I now know this to be true. A crowd of around 3,000 attended the Duhallow Hunt's fixture here yesterday and were serviced by three tardis-shaped toilets. You soon learn this is a dangerous ratio. There was, in hindsight understandably, no beer tent.

It was cold, windy, and facility free, but there was, as at all Irish point-to-points, magic as well as chill in the air. The pointing season here runs from 1 October to May and 3,000 runners take part. Most of them are meat, slow meat. But, in among the rubble, there is an occasional diamond. This is what sustains the sport, the spectators hoping to be at the launch of a celebrity, the traders, the prospectors, looking to strike a deal.

Nowhere else could there be such luminaries surveying chaff. The Grand National-winning trainer Jimmy Mangan, leading West Country owner Paul Barber, and the former jockey Adrian Maguire were there, as were those training heroes, David Nicholson and Fergie Sutherland. In all probability they saw little of note, but there is always a chance. There is always hope, even the most desperate emanating from the figure manning the ice-cream van yesterday.

Few noticed Classified here in 2000 as he negotiated the tufty farmer's fields over a track a mile round, almost always featuring two and a half circuits with 14 fences. Then he moved on and up. Classified's winning run as a novice hurdler for Martin Pipe was halted only when he ran behind Galileo in the Royal & SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival. Last year, Classified was fourth to Baracouda in the Stayers' Hurdle.

The Cheltenham Gold Cup winners Looks Like Trouble, Cool Dawn and Mr Mulligan all emerged from the pointing field, as did the first seven in last year's Gold Cup. Connections of one of those were at the Duhallow yesterday. They may not have frequented the 30 safety-first bookmaking pitches, where one A Palmer chalked up an opening show amounting to 360 per cent. He should stick to golf.

They probably did not participate in the authentic Irish experience, a Bart Simpson test- your-strength machine, but Henrietta Knight and Terry Biddlecombe enjoyed themselves all the same.

Hen and Terry like Irish points and in particular the one at Lismore, perhaps the nation's foremost proving ground, 20 minutes south-east of here. It was a February day in 1999 in the grounds of Lismore Castle, on the banks of the Blackwater, and you could have called it typically Irish, wet and dreary, if you were not afraid someone was looking over your shoulder at what passes for the international press centre at Kildorrery.

After removing smoked salmon sandwiches and chocolate eclairs from their hamper that day, the odd couple studied the runners in the first race, for maiden four-year-olds. Biddlecombe noticed one with his head held high and, though the tyro was pulled up three from home, he continued to be impressed. The racecard told him this youngster was called Best Mate.

"There are the top people involved in all this, like Tom Costello," Knight said, "but it's also fairly casual with a lot of farmers with just one horse. There is that real cross section. It makes an amazing atmosphere.

"The horses can look rough, as can the tack and the riders, but whatever horse emerges from the sea of trailers and family there is always the chance that this is the future champion."

This is the dream that drives. The circus moves on, as do the portable fences. Many of the faces from Co Cork yesterday will be at next Sunday's meeting. All will be hoping they will be first to spot the next equine star.