Colin Bowe took home the Point-to-Point prize at Tuesday night’s HRI Awards for the first time to continue Co. Wexford’s stranglehold on the award.
The Milestone Stables operator follows in the footsteps of his chief rider Barry O’Neill who won the award in 2018 and 2017 with Jamie Codd winning in 2013, 2014 and 2016.
Bowe was very much a deserving winner having dominated the training ranks within point-to-pointing for much of the last decade, and 2019 was undoubtedly his best to date.
A season-ending total of 45 winners saw him fall just two winners short of Robert Tyner’s 2009 record despite having 17 fewer runners. His own most successful season to date was more than enough to see him round off the campaign with 13 more winners than any other handler, as he claimed the leading handler award for the fifth straight year.
In all, the Wexford-based Bowe has won seven handlers titles in the last ten years.
With 21 winners in the ultra-competitive four-year-old maiden division, he was responsible for two of the biggest priced sellers of the season, with Papa Tango Charly (£440,000) and Ferny Hollow (£300,000), whilst on the track, his star graduate, Envoi Allen, continued his unbeaten streak by winning at the Cheltenham Festival.
Sam Curling, Barry O’Neill and Maxine O’Sullivan were the other worthy nominees in the point-to-point category.
Elsewhere on the evening, handler Peter Flood featured in the Emerging Talent category which was won by conditional jockey Darragh O’Keeffe, whilst Jamie Codd was among the nominees in the National Hunt Achievement award, which went to Gavin Cromwell.
The Point to Point Award goes to Colin Bowe%uD83E%uDD1F
— Horse Racing Ireland (@HRIRacing) December 10, 2019
The deserving winner keeping up County Wexford’s brilliant run in the category %uD83C%uDF1F#HRIAwards pic.twitter.com/UV2ns4yKk2
