No nightmares for O’Connor

By Caitriona Fenton

During my school, and later college years I always seemed to be swamped with projects on various different topics. Although I don’t recall half of them, I do however remember my first. To me, my first year project was a masterpiece but it soon became clear that my classmates were not the ideal audience for a project entitled ‘A History of Point-to-Point’. The main ‘finding’ of this project was that the first point-to-point or ‘Steeplechase’ was held in Cork way back in 1752. The match took place as a result of a wager between a Mr. Cornelius O’ Callaghan and a Mr. Edmund Blake. The two men raced cross-country between the steeples of Buttevant church and St. Mary’s in Doneraile, over a distance of 4.5 miles, hence the name ‘steeplechase’. My project lacked a result though as it was never recorded who actually won the historic race.

Fast forward 258 years and the 09/10 season has just wrapped up. And for the seventh year in a row Derek O’Connor has clinched the point-to–point riders’ championship. This is an amazing achievement for the 27 year old who seems to have the point-to-point world at his feet. Last year saw O’Connor become the first jockey to ride over 100 winners in a season, a feat which he pulled off again this year on Having Nightmares at Ballingarry. O’Connor went on to record another winner aboard Streamtown to bring his final tally to 101, twelve fewer than last year’s record of 113.

The riders’ championship is divided into regions as well as national titles. Derek O’Connor won the North, West and South titles while Wexford native Jamie Codd won the Eastern region. Codd has been runner up in the championships for the last four years behind O’Connor and looked set to challenge him for the title this year before a bad fall took him out of the running. Codd received a tear to his liver following a fall in the opening race of the Punchestown Festival and has been sidelined ever since. At the time of his injury Codd was not far behind O’Connor in the table with 57 winners, however given O’Connor’s final tally it is hard to imagine Codd or anyone else accumulating more than 101 winners.

The Ladies riders’ championship was shared by Liz Lalor and Maxine O’Sullivan with a total of eight winners each. This is the second title in a row for Lalor and although she may not be as much of a household name as Nina Carberry or Katie Walsh, she is proving herself to be up there with the top point-to-point riders. The Novice riders’ championship was won by Barry O’Neill with 33 winners, the last of his tally was aboard Milderina, trained by Colin Bowe – the 2010 champion Handler.

O’Connor’s overall total of winner’s stands at an amazing 622, a current record. He has long bypassed the previous holder John Thomas McNamara who has 437 winners to his name and was champion rider five times in the past. Other former champions include current trainer Enda Bolger who won seven titles between 1984 and 1997 and up until 1996 held the record of most winners with 413. With so much experience it is not surprising that he is now such a successful trainer.

At only 27 years Derek O’Conner has so much time left to gather an even larger tally of winners and raise the bar even more for every other rider who tries to break his record. At this rate he will be the only one breaking his own record for a long time to come!

By Caitriona Fenton