THE TRADITIONAL Easter Saturday point-to-point meeting at Whittington will not take place this Saturday, and may have been staged for the last time.

Organisers Vale of Lune Harriers have confirmed that there are no plans for a further running of the event, which last took place in 2016.

"The event will not take place this weekend and there are no plans for it to take place in the foreseeable future," said Harriers secretary Lynn Hardisty.

Point-to-point is a form of racing usually involving hunting horses and amateur riders racing over a set course between two points, hence the name.

More than 100 such British Horseracing Authority approved courses exist in the UK and the point-to-point at Whittington, near Kirkby Lonsdale, was first held back in 1936.

The event has been a popular tradition over the years, with fairground rides and food stalls and in more recent times, pony races in addition to the main races.

But flooding led to the cancellation of the event in 2016 and it was not held in either 2017 or 2018.

And the organisers have now confirmed that regrettably they had to advise that there will again be no meeting this weekend and for a variety of reasons, there are no plans for future events.

"We need to have an organising committee which we don't have, and there's just not a cost effective way for us to run it any more," explained Mrs Hardisty.

"And in addition, times are changing in a number of ways and the people who run point-to-point horses have certain requirements for the course which we could not provide."

Mrs Hardisty said this led to falling numbers of runners and future meetings no longer appeared to be a viable proposition.