Necarne used to be a vibrant, well-supported fixture - it needs help to recover its old charm

Necarne has been the location for many memorable days in point-to-pointing, from Brian Hamilton holding off an emerging Derek O’Connor to secure his second northern title in 2004 to O’Connor’s historic first century in a season five years later.

This was a meeting that attracted a vibrant atmosphere from strong local interest coupled with a good level of support from all over Ireland. Bearing that in mind, it was disappointing to see this year’s event host just 57 runners across two days of racing last week, including a walkover and a match race. 

It would be disappointing to see this meeting contract any further, so it is worth giving thought to how best to recover some of its old charm. The local committee are best placed to engage locally to draw the crowd, but from a racing perspective it may need a few tweaks to provide some added support. 

Looking at a heat map of all the point-to-point courses, Necarne is certainly an outlier. It is not near any other course and, with the exception of David Christie, it is not near any meaningful quantity of horses. 

With this in mind it is vital that this meeting takes place when it is most attractive to handlers. Its old date in mid-May as the season was coming to an end and opportunities were diminishing was key to its success. 

It is a course that can produce soft ground when many others are quickening notably and this was a key attribute. Taking place this year against the Punchestown festival, with two hunter chases on the Friday and a banks race on the Saturday, alongside three strong point-to-point courses, was always likely to lead to handlers swerving this distant venue. 

A return to its old end-of-season date when opportunities are limited would be a likely boost. The second tweak would be within the race programme for each day. Splitting the younger-age maidens across the two days is undoubtedly counterproductive. These are the races most likely to attract handlers from further afield, particularly Wexford. With a round trip of well over seven hours for them, there is a need to schedule their most appealing races on one day to encourage as many of them as possible to make the journey. 

Loughanmore has done exactly this on the opening leg of its two-day Easter meeting and that same logic should apply to Necarne. Small changes may assist returning this meeting to some of its former glory.

Weekend fixtures

Tomorrow

Toomebridge, first race 14.00

Sunday

Bartlemy, first race 13.00

Loughrea, first race 13.00

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Spate of entries this weekend illustrates pent-up demand for a bit of decent ground 

Handlers need a change of fortune now if there is any hope of them reinvesting to similar levels at the store sales 

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