MONDAY, JULY 28TH

GALWAY

One of the positives I take out of this great game of ours is the variety it brings.

Up the road, down the road, over the road, north, south, east, west, as the Cher song goes we were “born in the wagon of a travellin’ show”. It’s the same clowns just different towns!

While I know GAA is a religion in many parts of the country, I see the racing game also split up into many religions. Personally, I like to check in with “the Man Above” on a regular basis and I would never judge how other people sail their ships.

I see some fellas who treat money as their religion, they crack up if they lose! I see a few fellas who arrive to the overnight meetings and treat sex as their religion, they end up like JFK, getting a headache if they don’t pull!

Of course you have the fellas who treat alcohol like a religion, they are constantly stuck to the mahogany!

But the one thing we all have in common in the game is our religious pilgrimage to the Galway Races. The biggest Festival we have, where crowds and betting records are constantly broken and where the state of the economy of the country is really judged. I love the Galway Races and the way the Committee do things here.

Always making improvements for horse and racegoer alike, every year we come back you see something new.

I remember my first ever visit to Ballybrit with the Boss and my Mam, Joan, Lord rest her.

We were parked up beside the castle in the middle of the track, the mother packing a flask of tay and cheese sandwiches with YR sauce, and I know there is a picture in a USA biscuit tin at home with the mother and myself happy out.

It was 1975 and the Plate was won by a hero of mine Dessie Hughes aboard Our Albert. I’d love to see the newspapers from back then to see what coverage the Festival got.

This morning’s papers feature the Galway races on all their front pages with pullouts and free bets advertised. They will splash it over their pages for the next seven days sending their dedicated gossip journalists and paparazzi snappers to capture politicians, punters and best-dressed ladies. It’s the one festival that manages to grab nationwide attention.

From a work point of view we will have two photographers here and it makes it easy to manage. Liam will look after things at the final obstacle with son Sean on the remote control camera, while I will ply my trade at the winning line and the winner’s enclosure.

The pressroom has plenty of room with great WiFi and I am parked up beside RTE’s Robert Hall. This is our office for the week and from 9am in the morning you will have at least a dozen of us all doing our own jobs.

Of course, there is plenty of banter and the main topic that would raise fella’s blood pressure is the slagging over the football.

It’s gas, but for fellas that have to put their necks on the block publicly by tipping horses in the national papers, no one ever gives them a slagging over the one they might have got shockingly wrong.

Maybe there is a code amongst racing journalists “thou shall not take the urine out of a fellow scribe”!

We have a great evening’s work on the track with the highlights being trainer Tony Martin planting a kiss on Debbie Breslin, wife of owner John, after Quick Jack had won and another smacker is captured with Helen Mullins and her son David after he steered home Princely Conn in the bumper.

It’s great to see Loughrea native Herb Stanley in the winner’s enclosure after Beckwith Star wins as he had a bit of illness lately. You will know his colours carried to big race wins down the years with the likes of Merry Gale, Deep Idol and Derrymoyle.

After racing I manage to finish up for 9.30pm before heading to The Malt House to meet up with Chips, Joe Tickets, and Baby Snitch for a quick bite and then it’s on to The Quays to meet Berkie and Mrs Browns Boys. The town is busy and we are definitely into the Galway rhythm now.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 30TH

GALWAY

A big day in the racing calendar, Galway Plate day and with a 3pm kick off there is plenty of time to take in the atmosphere.

During my walkabout the enclosure, I take notice of the amount of ladies working in the betting ring fronting the pitches for bookmakers. Give a guess how many? 54 ladies are counted, all dressed to the nines and well able to shout the odds. (See pic A29)

Maybe it’s a marketing ploy. Sure wouldn’t a good-looking girl always take the eye, more than the likes of gentleman bookmakers like The Wizard, The Womble, The Snitch, Spike or Spartacus?

Of course the betting ring is the best university on the planet and apparently the boys here had a kind of “Rose Of Galway” competition with the finalists being, Lisa from Jim Desmond’s, Denise from McCoy’s, Amie from Bernard Barry’s and Orla from McCartan’s. You can cast your vote next time you are racing.

Things go well for us on the track with all the angles covered. The Plate win by Shane Shortall on Road To Riches trained by Noel Meade completes the set of feature race wins here for the legendary Meath man. Noel has been leading trainer here six times and loves the social part of the meeting as much as the rest of us, and the stories of when Pinch Hitter won the Galway Hurdle two years running back in 1982 and 1983 are part of Galway folklore.

Owned by Brendan Carolan and Finbarr Cahill, they say the gang won fortunes and they held the party in the Ardilaun Hotel where there was a competition to shoot the light bulbs out with champagne corks!

The story also goes that after racing, jockey Stephen Craine drove his car around the track with Noel, Finbarr and Dessie Scahill all on the roof with Dessie repeating the race commentary. And he a pioneer! Can you imagine the craic?

THURSDAY, JULY 31ST

GALWAY

A crowd of over 34,000 and gorgeous weather marks today as one that will live in the memory. Thomas Edison wins the feature Guinness Galway Hurdle for Tony Martin, J.P. McManus and Tony McCoy and there are great images to be got.

Fair play to McCoy he is good to us snappers and he always works “the room”.

J.P looks after us by holding young racegoer Conor Jordan from Navan in his arms who is dressed in his green and gold silks, and you just know that image is going to be used in the media.

I manage to get finished for 8.30pm and meet up with Sneaky Boo, Chips, Casey, Snitch, Nash, Lord Halifax and the lovely ladies, Aine, Beautiful Eyes, Sarah G and Sarah C for a bite in The Malt House.

Of course, the town is mobbed and we manage to find a corner in The Dail Bar off Shop Street.

With tomorrow being an evening meeting, we stay out a bit longer than normal and I skip home about ten to.

Four days down and we are still on the bridles, sure it’s a great circus to be involved in.

Pat Healy is a member of Ireland’s leading family of racing photographers