IT was off to Gowran Park on Thursday for the Goffs Thyestes Chase day. I think that it was two years ago that the entire racecourse was shrouded in fog with visibility of only 100 yards but no such problem this week.

Whatever about the cold in Doncaster, things were equally chilly in Co Kilkenny. I did not notice any best dressed lady competition but any rightful winner should have been wrapped up in North Face rather than Louise Kennedy.

The Thyestes comes at a time when we are closing applications and starting inspections for the Land Rover Sale. Goffs have committed to sponsor the race until at least 2020, announced in the same week that we learnt that Ladbrokes have taken over the sponsorship of the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury.

Having spent my childhood in Lambourn, and a great deal of it at nearby Newbury, the Hennessy was the most important local race in the calendar. Given that the race has been run as the Hennessy since 1957 I see benefits for Ladbrokes in working out a deal to retain the Hennessy name, maybe not for ever but certainly with a gradual fade-out.

A challenge with any brand being tied into multiple sponsorships is that there is invariably only one flagship event and the others are diminished by association. In my opinion, Hennessy’s sponsorship at Leopardstown did not achieve anything like the same place in racing’s branding consciousness as its Newbury equivalent or indeed the Lexus Chase or the Paddy Power at the same course in Ireland.

The 2017 Goffs Thyestes was won by Roger Brookhouse’s Champagne West, trained by Henry De Bromhead. This was a great result as the trainer was once a spotter in Goffs and the winning horse was bought for £26,000 by Goffs man Gerry Hogan as a store at the 2011 Goffs UK Spring Sale in Doncaster. This was only his third run for de Bromhead since moving from Philip Hobbs in the autumn.

SCARF

Henry’s father Harry won the race exactly 25 years ago with Grand Habit, ridden by Jason Titley, and I recall being there that day. On Thursday I noticed that Henry was wearing a pale blue scarf (mirroring the Brookhouse colours) in a style rather reminiscent of Roberto Mancini in his time as Manchester City manager.

I hope that he has a maroon one ready to wear this weekend when he sends a couple of big Gigginstown runners into battle.

Happily Henry’s parents Harry and Sally were there to witness their son’s latest big race winner, along with their close Waterford friends Dr Paul Walsh and his wife Angela.

It was great to see them all as both couples were always most hospitable to me many years ago when I made a few rather feeble attempts to woo their respective daughters.

I was slightly taken aback by Paul Walsh’s opening line “I must say that you make a very good Communist”; my hearing is not what it should be and it turned out that he was referring to my occasional ramblings in this paper.

The doctor then recounted how he remembered Henry saddling his very first runner. He was giving detailed instructions to his jockey when a well-known Limerick trainer cut him off, saying, “Never mind all that, he won’t listen to you anyway so just put him up on the f------ horse.” Nobody could argue that Henry is deserving of any jockey’s full attention these days.