Liz Lalor has been one of the country’s leading female riders over the past decade, and at Comea on Sunday afternoon the Co. Tipperary rider reached a momentous milestone in her career, when breaking Helen Byrce-Smith’s record of 109 winners to claim the title of most-winning lady point-to-point rider in Ireland with her 110th winner.
Lalor achieved that landmark courtesy of the victory of Read To Return in the five-year-old geldings’ maiden on the card at the Scarteen Foxhounds fixture.
The victory comes just over 21 years after her initial victory in the pointing sphere, which was recorded in 1999 aboard Guesswork when winning an open at Kinsale.
Twenty years later Lalor reached an initial milestone as she recorded her 100th winner at Nenagh point-to-point under the Declan Queally-trained Cloudy Morning.
This victory was all the more meritorious given that she and her partner Tom Keating, had welcomed their beautiful daughter, Alex, into the world just over five weeks earlier.
This victory was all the more meritorious given that she and her partner Tom Keating, had welcomed their beautiful daughter, Alex, into the world just over five weeks earlier.
Lalor’s 100th winner between the flags made her the third most winning point-to-point lady rider with Rosemary Rooney on 101 and Helen Bryce-Smith on 109 and she has now surpassed both these records.
Another achievement the Tipperary native achieved in 2019 was being crowned Lady Champion Rider for the seventh time at the point-to-point awards, having claimed her first title back in 2009 when sharing with Jennifer Pugh. Although Lalor has claimed several titles she achieved her best season in 2019 when recording 13 winners from 36 rides.
The champion lady rider rode 11 winners aboard the family home-bred Carrigeen Acebo, who was crowned champion mare on two occasions and was also crowned champion pointer in 2015.
Lalor hails from a family steeped in National Hunt breeding, with the Lalor’s producing many Graded winners over the years carrying the ‘Carrigeen’ prefix in their names.
Some of Lalors other winners came courtesy of Rattle The Cage, Defacto Lady, Minella For Value, B L Swagger, Conformist, Red Devil Boys, Fenno’s Storm (ITM Ladies Open at Lisronagh) and After Eight Sivola in the ITM Ladies open at Ballingarry.
Liz Lalor also trained her first winner under rules in 2015 when De Name Escapes Me won a bumper at Clonmel and notably her landmark 110th victory came on a horse trained by her partner Tom Keating to make the achievement all the more notable.
