There will be a new name for point-to-point followers to look out for following the arrival of Tiernan Power Roche from his native Ireland.
The opportunity has been taken to catch up with Tiernan and Christopher Barber - whose yard he is now based - alongside the horses he has accompanied over from Ireland, to find out how the arrangement has come about.
When point-to-point racing was put on hold in January, Christopher made contact with Harley Dunne in Ireland to see if there was any opportunity to send four or five horses from his Littlewindsor, near Beaminster, base to be trained and run in Irish point-to-points. Although that did not happen in the end, when Irish point-to-point racing was put on hold with no planned start date Harley made contact with Christopher to see if there was a reverse opportunity to send a team of unraced young horses to him to run in UK point-to-points and in order to assist him Tiernan would accompany the horses and do the work with them and ride them in said races.
Tiernan takes up the story by advising that he was asked by Harley if he would like to take on this role in order to broaden his experience and, after ‘humming and hawing’ for a few days, decided that he would come to England and link-up with Christopher, who he had never met until his arrival.
Tiernan, at 23, is the same age as Christopher and hails from Wexford in South East Ireland where he has been race riding since the age of 17. Although there are no racing connections in his background, he had been riding ponies and hunting since an early age and from about the age of 12 he had been riding out in the school holidays and at weekends for Benny Walsh. His first ride was on a mare called Hi Lucy Lou in 2015 and he had a couple of rides on her, completing the course on the second of these.
His first winner came on another mare a year later called Cidersall who had been in training with Paul Kiely and had run two races with little promise. Acquired by Tiernan and his brother Ryan for a modest sum, his brother decided after a short period to get out of his share, which was then taken over by Tiernan’s mother. When the mare won on her next appearance at Kinsale, Ryan was not best pleased!
Tiernan’s career took off after joining the stable of William Codd, the brother of leading rider Jamie, and he was keen to say how much he has learned from Jamie, as well as other leading riders in Derek O’Connor and Barry O’Neill, who have been supportive and encouraging in his race riding.
To date, he has achieved 22 point-to-point victories in Ireland and a further two under Rules. When asked about the best horses he has ridden in work, he immediately mentioned Carlingford Lough and Lostintranslation, when he was being broken in. He had begun riding a couple of days a week for Harley Dunne this season and is now looking forward to his new adventure in England, starting with a ride at Charing on Gemini Fire and a ride at Maisemore on Flaming Ambition.
When asked about any longer-term ambitions, Tiernan said has no particular plans and wants to see how this venture turns out, and to take each day as it comes. He has no weight issues, so hopes that he might be in demand for the young horses carrying lesser weights.
It will be interesting to see how he adapts to English point-to-pointing and how he copes with the vagaries of our courses.