THE Kane twins, Mary and Emma throw their hearts into organising Ladies Day at Portmarnock every year.

The 2018 renewal was held on probably the coldest day of the year so far. In the bar and the stand, various ladies were out in their finery, although by the look of the goose pimples on show, it was a tough old stand!

A visitor from France, Laurie Pavard stole the show on the day with a well-timed late run aboard Urbano Des Selles to take the monté race for both men and lady riders. Laurie (21) told The Irish Field that she had previously ridden five winners in her homeland.

Owner John Roche enjoyed a double on the day. John is revelling in his mentions in these columns and said: “Here’s a bit of trivia for you – this horse is the only one running in Ireland to have won for three different French visitors.” The canny Roche bought the winner of the 13th and final race recently.

Coreo Fligny had finished like a train under Martin Loughran the previous week and, on Sunday, trainer Billy Roche was in the sulky. The pairing were prominent throughout and took the top grade trot from Brian Luis Porsguen and Buster Gilligan.

Maybe it was Ballinasloe in the air, but the meeting had a feel of ‘musical chairs’ to it with five or six runners appearing for new owners. As the nights draw in some men think ‘I’ll not be wintering this fellow’ and they only have to meet the man who thinks. ‘There’s a race or two still in that horse.”

Paddy Kane and Walter Cunningham always turned a lot of stock in the late season.

One example of a nice piece of ‘cherry picking’ was by none other than the redoubtable John Richardson who claimed Twist Du Layon for his advertised price the previous week and promptly recouped €900 of his outlay on Sunday.

The 11-year-old chesnut won the clockwise race. “He’s a cheap horse now,” stated JR with a knowing smile.

“Ladylike” would not be the adjective that springs to mind when the young female drivers and jockeys are in action. The shouts from the girls could be heard in Malahide as they encouraged the runners in several close finishes.

Charlie Flanagan (a lady despite the name!) has been knocking on the door in conventional races all season.

The Oldtown native picked a great day to break her duck and won both the pace and the sulky trot with Meadowbranch Milli and Star De Fruitier.

The Flanagan girls are great competitors and a win against the men will be next target for 17-year-old Charlie. The winner of the ladies’ trot took home the Vera and Dinny Hannon memorial trophy.

The ladies’ saddle pace went about as far from Oldtown as possible when Mary Rose Shanahan rousted a good run out of her father John’s Coalford Bruce.

The Shanahans hail from Leap in the heart of West Cork trotting country. Oisin Quill from neighbouring Kerry was beaten a quarter-length on King Wills Arrival.

In the ‘normal’ handicaps, the first such race saw a long overdue win for the McHughs all the way from Baileboro, Co Cavan.

Sean Kane came in for the catch drive on Espoir Efbe. The odds of 5/1 to 2/1 tells its own tale.

Newtown Revenge (Alan Wallace snr) continued the improved form of that yard in taking the G1 pace. Billy Roche who also stables at Wallace’s complex opened up a driving double when the black gelding Epsilon Du Lilas ran away with the E to G trot.

Dragons Den has taken a while to get going. He was not cheap at the US sales and has obviously had some issues. John Richardson has the patience of Job and the fact that the son of Dragon Again still has a stable at the Ballyboughal set up, would indicate that he must have shown some ability.

The rest of the field had no response to Dragons Dens burst of speed and 19 lengths was the distance in 2.01.

Another of the newcomer yards got a boost when Dan McAteer attained his first win as an actual driver when his own Cool convincingly won the E to F trot. Cool is in some order and looked well for the first week in October.

Maxie Collins from Drogheda is more associated with his ‘Blueview’ prefix on the coursing field.

The shrewd septuagenarian bought into the ‘Le Trot’ scheme in 2016. Maxie had a better year with Beach De Bellouet in 2017 than this term. In the current season the mare has had a stop-start campaign.

“She might be an autumn type,” said Maxie who is also one of trotting’s longest standing bookmakers.

John Richardson drove Beach De Bellouet which made it a treble on the day for the current The Irish Field champion driver.

Luke Kelleher of Macroom steered the Judge Cam mare Pan Cam Drift to a lifetime best of 1.58 in the A3 to D handicap. Luke had his rivals off the bridle at the three-quarter pole. The well-made mare is a nice breeding prospect. Luke’s father Michael raced her sire.

Apologies to one of the sponsors at the September 23rd meeting. Red Mills Feeds name was omitted in error.

Full results can be seen at www.irisharnessracing.com