Champions Crowned | Unbeaten Eddies Miracle a first Champion Pointer for Christie

Star open performer Eddies Miracle wins the ninth Champion Point-to-Point Horse prize, as the 12-year-old was the only horse to record a total of four victories in the pointing fields throughout the shortened 2019-20 season.

Having only had the opportunity to run four times, he maintained an unbeaten record for the campaign with victories at Portrush, Borris House, Tyrella and Tinahely and those successes are all the more remarkable given that he was returning from a life-threatening injury.

The son of Beat Of Drums had suffered a fractured pelvis when pulling-up at Kirkistown in November 2018, ensuring that when he appeared at Portrush in late October, he was having to defy an 11-month absence in the process.

Sent off as a 6/1 shot for re-appearance, Eddies Miracle went on to defeat fellow veteran Bridgets Pet by four lengths, in a success which proved to be particularly special for his handler David Christie.

“I am quite emotional, that horse means everything to me and I nearly lost him in November with a fractured pelvis,” said the Fermanagh-based handler immediately following the success at the Co. Derry venue.

“I took him down to Ger Kelly in Fethard, he said he had never seen a fracture like it and that we could put him down or give him a chance, so we gave him a chance. He was on deaths door for a month and we nursed him and nursed him.

“I have never been as nervous coming back because you never know what could happen I never thought I would see him come back like this. I am seriously emotional! He is a very good horse who has so much class he is unbelievable. 

“He would have hated that ground and I just don’t want to go and ask any silly questions.  We are just going to enjoy it!”

Barry O’Neill and Ben Harvey, who also both collect silverware this season, alternated the riding duties on Ray Nicholas’ charge, with Harvey taking the mount on him for the first time when running in a near capacity field novice rider’s open at Borris House in December.

Eddies Miracle got the better of his 16 rivals in a thrilling finish, which saw his stable companions, Horendus Hulabaloo and Marinero chase him home in second and fourth positions respectively.

The following month he was sent off as the favourite at Tyrella for the first time of the season, proving to be a length and a quarter too good for Sizing Solution, before his final outing of the season in Tinahely.

It was at the Wicklow venue that he recorded his comprehensive success, easily brushing aside Better B Quick, himself a two-time winner during the season, to extend his unbeaten record for the season to four.

His successes contributed to an incredible season for both owner Ray Nicholas, and handler David Christie.

For Nicholas, his orange and green silks were also carried to success by Pyrios, Dylrow and Some Man during the season, due rewards for the Belfast Businessman and on-course bookmaker, who has long supported racing between the flags.

Whilst Christie sent out 13 winners during the season from a total of 28 runners, leaving him with a strike rate that is just shy of 50%, and the award success of Eddies Miracle, is a first champion point-to-point horse prize, for the man widely regarded as one of the top handlers of the era.

Those four victories for Eddies Miracle, left him one clear of no fewer than seven horses, all of whom won three races, including the Sam Curling trio of Aloneamongmillions, Lite Duties and Templebredin, Vincent Halley’s stable star, Arctic Skipper, Shark Hanlon’s Mighty Stowaway, Sean Doyle’s My Story, and the six-year-old Concrete King