LAST week it was ‘Painted Mile’ Sunday at Portmarnock which hosted four races specifically for piebalds and skewbalds (a high grade, a low grade, a three-year-old race and one for two-year-olds). These races brought flashy marked horses and ensured a decent crowd at the north Dublin venue.

The feature event (the high grade – Painted Mile proper) went to the stable of the moment, the Porterstown yard, with Clive Kavanagh’s White Flame, who was driven by Jonny Dunne.

For the second time in 12 months there was a world record achieved in a race at Portmarnock. The clock read 1.56.9s by the time White Flame hit the line, and it was the type of performance that could see Kavanagh’s charge sought after in Australia or even in America.

The record is no parochial thing as for many years there have been a band of horsemen in Australia continually trying to lower this standard.

Trainer Christy Dunne was elated and said: “He’ll go to Aberystwth and Musselburgh now – we think he can compete with solid coloured horses, so we’ll take our chance.”

Like them or loathe them coloured horses are improving steadily in quality, and there is no denying that their followers know their breeding back to front, and know how to celebrate a winner.

The difficult issue is that certain elements like to race coloured horses on the road. The internet, newspapers and radio phone-ins are littered with stories about all the negative aspects of such racing.

This is a difficult issue for for the IHRA to contain. Last year this column made reference to the ‘assimilation’ programme being launched to encourage young people to leave the ‘tarmac job’ as they see it and come to the track proper. I fail to see the attraction of racing on the road. If two or three horses meet on a straight stretch of road, with the road well closed off (by fair means or foul) then the fastest horse should win.

On the track a horse and driver can be boxed in, parked out, impeded and railroaded. A good driver can obtain a sweet trip, take the shortest way around and save energy for that all important stretch drive. Therein lies the fascination of the sport. As the great Arthur Slack (Stoneriggs Stud) once said: “If you put 2.07 horses in with 2.07 horses the horse that gets the best position will win.”

RESPECTED

Coloured animals have long been respected in the field of three-day eventing and have even made their way into the RDS and Sport Horse circles. So let’s hope the breeders of the pintos come over to recognised racing.

The low grade race saw a horseman of the old school, Alec Patterson of Templepatrick, Co Antrim nurse round Shane McConnell’s Indians Chance for a gate-to-line victory.

The 1/3 shot Bomb Fire (Wayne Duffy) was untroubled by Big Pete (A. McCoy) in the three-year-old race.

Phil O’Neill, from a long-standing London trotting family, raced Phantom in the low grade race. While the horse was only third, they could win the award for best marked.

The two-year-old race went to Billy Roche with Snow Delight. The pair had Light His Fire (Clive Kavanagh) off the bridle early and went on to win well.

In the classes for solid coloured horses, the first race went to Alikolt and first season driver Derek Jennings. Jennings was content to wait with the son of Kikicolt before dismissing Newtown Amber in a matter of strides.

Baron De Nganda has been an ‘enfant terrible’ for Buster Gilligan but this was the day the son of Paisy Dream finally got it together for Buster. The pair got first run on the consistent Simosa (Joseph Caffrey).

The F and E pace saw plenty of bumping. Once again our hard pressed volunteer stewards had to sort through some close driving. After a lengthy delay, the original first past the post Fair Enough (Alan Wallace snr) so often the bridesmaid, was allowed to keep the race.

Meadowbranch Kiki has showed class in recent runs. On Sunday the seven-year-old gelding showed another important attribute – plenty of guts – to come back at Porterstown Kirk (D Jennings). The winner was driven by Mark O’Reilly, this being a C class drivers’ race.

TALENTED BUT ERRATIC

The money was for two horses in the E and D trot, Urbano Des Selles from the Roche yard and Noely Ryan’s Best Of Loulou, and that was how they finished. Urbano is talented but erratic, so Roche was content to track John Morgan’s runner. When he asked Urbano Des Selles to pick up, the gelding responded readily.

Lyons Nant Hall (John Richardson) was slowly away on his last appearance, but was kept handy on this occasion and saw off the game On Top Jeremys Jet (P. Kane jnr) to take the top grade pace.

JR brought up his double on the day when he took the A to C trot with Best Of Burois. Ultimo d’ Ouville (Alan Wallace) went off favourite at around 4/5. However the Newtown runner had to give 20 yards to Best Of Burois which proved a bridge too far for even this class act.

There was no catching Best Of Burois on the day. Richardson’s forceful drive meant that the large crowd dispersed having seen a new track record to go with the world record earlier. The time of 2.31.4s for a mile and a quarter is another fine achievement for the man reared at Portmarnock.