RTÉ’s weekend racing coverage covered all three days of the Irish Derby meeting and you could describe it as ‘whirlwhind’ in more ways than one.

Each show lasted about two hours and there was a lot to fit in. It was anchored by Hugh Cahill, stood at a podium on the plaza in front of the champagne bar. Two metres to his left stood analyst Jane Mangan, and the third presenting spot was rotated between Ruby Walsh, Johnny Murtagh and Andrew McNamara. I’m sure the boys disinfected it every evening.

Friday night’s show was blessed with sunshine but that wasn’t to last long. On the track, the highlight was the Apprentice Derby and Brian Gleeson did well to interview rising star Dylan Browne McMonagle before he won the big race on Tonkinese.

There was plenty of praise for the Donegal lad though Ruby noted there was room for improvement. “He should have switched his whip to his left hand. To get to the very top you need to be able to use both hands.”

Haunting howl

A cool breeze was a-blowing across the plains when Saturday’s show began and, even from their champagne bar ‘stage’, you could hear the grandstand whistling away. The haunting howl was most audible when the cameras switched to commentator Richard Pugh in the grandstand. Hugh actually drew attention to the noise and reassured viewers that they didn’t need to bang their telly.

Under the circumstances it wasn’t easy to provide viewers with emotion but there were a couple of tender moments. On Saturday we saw a lovely pre-recorded feature with jockey Shane Crosse, who articulated how he had gone from pony racing to being champion apprentice to being given the ride one of the favourites in the Irish Derby in Crossfirehurricane.

Moments later we were ‘zoomed’ to the palatial living room of the horse’s owner Scott Heider in Nebraska and he admitted that he had just wiped a tear in his eye watching Shane tell his story. Unfortunately this chapter didn’t have a happy ending but Shane showed great character to bounce back with a Group 2 win the next day on Speak In Colours.

Another highlight on Sunday’s coverage was Brian Gleeson’s interview with trainer Kieran Cotter, just after Strong Johnson had won the Rockingham Handicap in a three-way photo-finish.

“I’m lost for words, I’m in shock, to be honest,” said the Portarlington, Co Laois, trainer, clearly choking on emotion. “You have a small yard, trying to compete … I know it was a handicap but we don’t get much chances like this. To win by two short-heads, I am speechless.”

After giving a shout-out to Mark Gallagher, who lost the ride on the winner when Colin Keane came calling. Kieran explained how he and business partner Danny Murphy has set out to improve the quality of horse in the yard and they were getting results now. Sensing a moment of weakness, Brian asked him to name another one in the yard we could watch out for and we got it. Put Clef De Voute, a three-year-old filly by Zoffany, in your tracker. Don’t you dare change her name, lads!

Bigger coup

Brian had actually landed an even bigger coup the night before when interviewing Aidan O’Brien moments before the Derby.

While everyone else was wondering how the race would unfold, Brian simply asked Aidan what the instructions were. “It’s very simple,” said Aidan. “Michael [Hussey, on Iberia] has a good draw, so he will go forward. Emmet [McNamara, on Tiger Moth] is drawn alongside and he will track him down the rail. Wayne [Lordan, on Arthur’s Kingdom] will go forward on his horse too. Padraig [Beggy, on Order Of Australia] is drawn wide and he will come forward as well.

“Seamus [Heffernan, on Santiago] will have to take his time and so will Ronan [Whelan, on Dawn Patrol]. That’s the way we think it will pan out.” To be honest, we could have gone and made a cup of tea at that stage because that is exactly how it turned out.

But Brian wasn’t finished with Aidan yet. “Is there a lively outsider that Aidan could put the RTÉ viewers on to?” he begged.

Aidan responed: “Emmet’s horse [Tiger Moth] won his maiden very nicely and has progressed very well. And Ronan’s horse [Dawn Patrol] has progressed as well.” And so it came to pass. They finished second and third to the favourite. Can we have Aidan on every week please?

Still, Aidan is no Ted Walsh. After Johnny Murtagh has played down the skill involved in his four Derby wins, Ted popped up via video link to plainly state that J.P. Murtagh and M.J. Kinane had no superiors when it came to big racedays. “You could send Johnny or Mick anywhere in the world and they would ride the ass off of most fellas.” There’s another one for the list of Ted’s top 10 quotes.