POINT-TO-POINTING has formed part of the rural scene in this country for almost 200 years now, since its inception across the water in Ireland during the 1750s. Back then, cross-country chases were a regular fixture among the sporting set and became more formalised when two thrusters decided to challenge each other to a 41/2-mile dash between two churches in Co Cork. Although they didn’t know it, Edmund Blake and Cornelius O’Callaghan had laid the foundations for the amateur branch of racing and coined the term ‘steeple-chasing’ to boot. These hairy gallops from point to point of a hunting country took in all obstacles along the route, from oxers to hedges and yawning ditches with the odd jumpable bank thrown in.
Racing lore has it that the first point-to-point in England probably took place in 1836 in the Worcestershire’s hunt country. The race was won by a Captain Becher, who would later achieve fame through his eponymous fence at Becher’s Brook where he took a dramatic tumble while racing at Aintree. By the mid-1800s many hunts beganand horses qualify by the registration of a Hunter Certificate, verified by the Master of the hunt to which they belong.
