Monday, March 13th
SO it’s finally here, Cheltenham week. The four days that the whole jumping season centres around. Is it me or does the hype climb a notch every year, especially with the world’s newest invention ‘social media’? I mean, you have grown men stating on their Facebook and Twitter pages “three more sleeps”, etc! Not pretty!
Here at Healy Racing we are no different to everyone else in the media game in that it has become our biggest few days of the year. From transmitting images, to contracts after each race, to next Christmas time with annuals and calanders, decent images of the big horses and races are essential.
Liam and I cover the meeting and, always, going over you are hoping that your equipment won’t let you down and that the weather is good. We leave Listowel this morning at 8.30am travelling with bookmakers Berkie Browne, Spike Murphy and Barney McMahon, catching the 11.50am Aer Lingus ironbird from Cork to Heathrow.
The craic is great with plenty of banter and stories. Spike is a famous man in the game for telling tales of characters gone or thankfully still over ground and he regales a classic to us this morning. Long before Leonardo DiCaprio starred in the film Catch Me If You Can there was a punter from the north who was punting strongly with a leading rails bookmaker up and down the country. These were the days when cash was king and racetracks had plenty of punters and bookmakers.
Apparently our man from the north got into the bookmaker for 40 to 50 grand and one day rocks up to our bookmaker with a ‘chicken’s neck’. Happy bookie goes back to his office and hands over the ‘kite’ to his accountant to lodge it.
About a week later the accountant calls the bookie to tell him he has a small problem. “Don’t tell me it bounced,” says the bookmaker. “No” says the accountant, “there dosn’t seem to be a problem with the cheque, it’s the bank we can’t find!”
Tuesday, March 14th
We rent a house in Charlton Kings, which is a 15-minute drive to the track, and we are parked up in the media centre for 9.30am this morning. It’s in the same spot as last year, behind the weigh room, a fantastic facilty with acres of room for 150 snappers, press, radio presenters and bookie reps.
Once you are set up, the day flies by and this morning at 10.45am we have Sir Anthony (or Tony to you and me) McCoy unveiling his own statue. You have to agree he deserves it and there is a great crowd gathered around including his old bosses J.P. McManus and Jonjo O’Neill.
On the track it’s brilliant to witness a first win here for 17-year-old Dingle man Jack Kennedy. We have been watching him since his pony racing days and you can imagine the thrill his parents Liz and Billy, who are both here, got watching him win. I remember the day Jack won the Dingle Derby for his Dad on a horse called Coola Boola. Jack was carried shoulder high up and down the racetrack by the locals. The Dingle Derby is the blue riband of the pony game and all the locals took work off for a week after that win.
I love the story later on in the day when Jack was asked to do a radio interview for Today FM and he asks them can he do it later as he has to go down to the stables to look after his horses!
Like the buses coming along, we have a second Kerryman booting a winner home when Bryan Cooper wins on Apple’s Jade. He has had a stop-start time with injury since his Gold Cup win here last year and I think of his mother, Geraldine, back in Farmers Bridge who did what every Mom does best by minding him physically and emotionally when he had that horrific leg break here in 2014.
Today is the first running of the JT McNamara National Hunt Chase and there is a video played out on the screens of the great man, which brings a tear to the eye. J.T.’s wife Caroline and their children Dylan, Harry and Olivia are on hand to present the trophy to winner, Michael O’Leary, after Tiger Roll skates home under Garristown girl Lisa O’Neill giving her a first success.
It’s young Dylan’s second visit to the winner’s enclosure after a great touch by J.P. McManus to grab Dylan and get him to lead in Champion Hurdle winner Buveur D’Air earlier. Funnily enough, Tiger Roll also won the other race earlier in the season named in J.T.’s honour, the JT McNamara Munster National in Limerick.
Wednesday,
March 15th
I don’t think I have been here on a warmer day then we have today. It’s Ballybunion weather and the Irish have three more winners with and an Elliott double and Supasundae winning for Jessica Harrington and Puppy Power.
I MC’d a Cheltenham preview night in Swan’s of Curragha with Puppy last week and he is brilliant on the panel, coming out with great one-liners the whole time, my favourite being: “Don’t listen to him, he will put you in the poorhouse not the penthouse!”
We had a preview in Moneygall where the panel thought Nico de Boinville mightn’t do the best job on Altior and Might Bite calling him ‘Nico de Bouncy’ and, of course, the one in Listowel where a fella stated that a certain trainer “wouldn’t train a dead dog to lie down!”
They are brilliant nights and our one in Listowel is sponsored by Berkie for the Parents And Friends Of the Mentally Handicapped and, fair play to him, he is delighted when our panel member Eric McNamara’s €100 charity bet on Tiger Roll rocks up at 33/1.
Thursday March 16th
What a day’s racing! I must say I loved every minute of it. Six Irish horses to win in a row, a pity we didn’t make a clean sweep of it. We capture history as Ruby Walsh rides four winners in a day at the meeting and Willie Mullins trained the four of them, equalling his record of a couple of years ago. It was also achieved by Nicky Henderson some years back.
Ruby will always come out with a great comment when he pulls up after the winning line and after he wins on Let’s Dance to record the four-timer he shouts at me: “We’re (Walsh/Mullins) like the Kerry football team, we keep bouncing back.”
Trainer Pat Kelly produces one of the best performances ever by managing Presenting Percy to win the Pertemps under 11st 11lb with Davy Russell doing the steering for the popular Reynolds family led by Philip and Abby. To win the race two years in a row after Mall Dini last year is a magical training feat and there will be some parties between Craughwell and Longford.
Chatting to Philip Reynolds at last year’s Galway Festival, he told me how he teamed up with Pat Kelly. After meeting him at a race meeting one day they got on great and when going home Philip said to Pat that if he ever had a nice horse to give him a call.
Now, in the present climate when owners are hard to come by, you might think that Pat made that call two weeks later, two months later, 12 months later! No, he waited a whole two years before picking up the phone to Philip Reynolds. One of the best phone calls he ever took, you have to agree.