MONDAY, MARCH 9th
Dublin Airport
TODAY is the second Monday in March which means one thing, Cheltenham week, where over the next four frenzied days, 450 horses will take up their date with destiny and a privileged 27 of them will bring the dreams of breeders, owners, trainers, grooms, jockeys and punters to glorious reality.
Would you agree that every year it comes around, the lead up to it is bigger and better? There was never as many preview nights (five in Kerry alone) where at every one an Irish horse is tipped and no one looks further then the first two in the betting. If only it was that easy!
Newspapers give it a two-week run-up, and throw in the social media sites Twitter and Facebook, and you are hooked on a festival fever high before you touch English soil. Even this morning in the local garage shop all the newspapers run their headings with Cheltenham pull-outs and specials from bookmakers and the counter girls are asking for winners.
I pick up bookie Berkie Browne before 9am and it’s a sign of middle age for both of us as we drop his son, seven-year-old Darragh, off at school on our way. One time we would have two fast pints in Jet’s before hitting the road! Now it’s the school run. “Will you come next year to Cheltenham?” I ask Darragh. “Will I have no school?” he replies. Priorities is what it’s all about!
On to Abbeyfeale and we collect Spike Murphy and Barney McMahon and then the 90-mile trip to Cork airport for the 11.50am Aer Lingus iron bird to Heathrow. Sure we don’t feel a mile of the journey with Spike regaling tales of characters gone to God from the racing game and a discussion of topics ranging from Sinn Fein to speed vans. “There was a great Sergeant one time in Abbeyfeale,” says Spike, “In 29 years he never once wore out a Ladbrokes biro, and there’s not much ink in them”!
It’s a busy flight with plenty of racegoers on board and I am sitting beside trainer John Kiely’s sister Mary Ann and her husband Seamus Condon. Of course they are looking forward to Friday with Carlingford Lough in the Gold Cup and we wish them the best.
After six years, we are renting a different house this year in Charlton Kings as the lady who owned the last one passed away since last year’s Festival. Pauline Clarke was her name and she was a lovely woman, God bless her, along with husband Mike, they would do anything for you. We will light a candle for her during the week. Our new landlady is Christine and sure we hit it off straight away, fair play to her. “Don’t worry,” I tell her, “We won’t be having any raves in the house.”
“Well ye couldn’t top the crowd that rented it last year,” she replies. “They used it as a brothel.” Maybe that explains the nods and winks the neighbors are throwing to our fellow lodgers JQ and Amory “Sidesaddle” McMahon!
TUESDAY, MARCH 10th
Cheltenham
BOTH Liam and I arrive to the track for 9am and sort our seats in the press marquee, which is situated high up behind the parade ring. There is room for 120 photographers here and we are well looked after with tea, sandwiches and fruit to keep us fuelled. We make our plan for the day with Liam shooting the last fence before heading for the winners’ enclosure while I shoot the winning line, jockey celebration and then battle my way through the crowd along the rat route at the back of the grandstand to also cover the lead in and presentation. During the morning I take a walk around the enclosures and the racecourse’s £45 million redevelopment is on schedule for completion at the end of this year. The steppings of the new stand are in use for the meeting, which will cater for 3,000 people and when completed the stand will house 7,000. All the areas behind the stands, above and below the parade ring now have more room with racegoers supposedly finding it easier to manoeuvre. There are plenty of food and refreshment vans parked up around the place. If you fancy a jacket potato with beans it will set you back £6. A margharita pizza is £6, while a cup of tea is £2. Down in the Guinness Village a pint of the black stuff is £4.90 or you can pop into the Moet Bar for a champagne mini at £15.
I know I seem to be singing off the same hymn sheet yet again but today was definitely one that will live long in the memory. Willie having four winners, Ruby riding three and then crashing out with Annie Power. Paul Townend having two winners. Point-to-point champion Jamie Codd wins for Gordon Elliott and J.P. and Co Antrim native Neil Mulholland has his first Festival success. The Annie Power fall was actually spooky! Standing on the winning line the cresendo of noise as she raced to the last made the hairs stand on the back of your neck and then the stunned silence as punters couldn’t believe their eyes as she crashed out.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11th
Cheltenham
SOME of the logistics of this meeting are enormous. The prize money is now at £3.9 million. There will be over 346,000 pints of Guinness sold and 120,000 bottles of wine drunk. The average daily attendence is 58,000 with 35,500 cars parked over the four days. 10,000 of us will cross the pond where Ryanair will put on 30 extra flights from Dublin to Birmingham, and there are 5,000 people employed during the Festival. That’s the population of Listowel town!
On the track we have three Irish winners, two more for Gigginstown trained by Tony Martin and Willie Mullins and Dermot Weld is back to win again with Windsor Park. The main story today for us photographers though is the accident to our colleague Patrick McCann of The Racing Post who got knocked down at the second last fence in the cross-country race. God bless him he suffered a serious leg fracture and was transferred to Southmead Hospital in Bristol. Patrick wasn’t doing anything wrong and was entitled to be standing where he was but it was just one of those freaky things that comes with horse racing. We wish him a speedy recovery.
THURSDAY, MARCH 12th
Cheltenham
WE witness another great day’s racing today starting off with Vautour who produces a performance that has everyone talking while the reception that Tony McCoy gets coming back to the winners’ enclosue aboard Uxizandre is a special one.
I am thrilled to photograph our great friend James Collins from Athea, Co Limerick, winning the charity race aboard Knight’s Parade for trainer Gordon Elliott. Fair play to Gordon for supplying James with the horse after his original mount fell away and there are great scenes in the winners’ enclosure afterwards with a big crowd of supporters from Kerry and Limerick along with Eileen, Sandra and Richard Hughes whom James dedicated the win to having worked for Dessie back in the day.