PAT HEALY: In his latest blog Pat reflects on the latest weather havoc, Energumene’s seasonal reappearance win, another Group 1 for Ryan Moore and one for the notebook …..
Icy weather
The weather’s playing havoc with the fixture list and I think according to the forecasters the cold snap is due to stay in place until the coming weekend.
Luckily Punchestown, which was called off last Sunday, has now been rescheduled for Monday 19th December.
The all-weather tracks have been taking a bit of a hit as well, as we saw in England with Newcastle being abandoned.
Dundalk’s Monday card was called off after one race because of freezing fog. The jockeys went into the stewards after the first race and reported that the freezing conditions were affecting their goggles – they were getting fogged. Obviously when a jockey can’t see, that’s not on.
It was one of those things that happens every now and again. At least there were no accidents, you take the positive out of a negative. I’m sure Dundalk will be rescheduled.
Cork on Sunday
I was at Cork on Sunday to see Energumene (pictured below) make his seasonal reappearance. He did what was expected and it was fantastic to see him. I think both Paul Townend and Willie Mullins were happy.
Again, it was a shame about the weather. The crowd wasn’t that big, but the roads around were very icy and you can’t blame people for not risking a journey. The racing was on RTE too, so I’m sure people would have been by the fire watching Energumene.
Also, on the card Henry [de Bromhead] and Rachael [Blackmore] had a double. Arctic Bresil won his maiden hurdle. He’s by the same sire as Constitution Hill – Blue Bresil – and it looked a smart performance. Hiddenvalley Lake put away a nice field in the Grade 3 hurdle over three miles, so I think we saw two nice types there.
Impervious was also good, beating the well-thought-of Dino Blue. She’s probably a serious mare to put Dino Blue away, and I’m sure if she ends up at the Festival in March she could be one of the Irish bankers, certainly based on her performance at Cork. We all know how good Colm [Murphy] is at training a horse.
Ryan Moore
Ryan was on the board with another Group 1 winner in Hong Kong on Sunday.
I think Ryan has firmly established himself as the ultimate professional. To think that two years ago, if you believed everything you read on social media, he and Ballydoyle were supposedly parting ways, but it was all a load of baloney.
I think that’s the thing about Ryan and Aidan [O’Brien] – they never say much, they keep their heads down and they get the results.
We have to congratulate Ryan on having a fantastic year. He’s a marvellous ambassador for Flat racing. I’m sure every young apprentice watches him, wants to learn from him, and wants to be him.
One for the notebook
The Borris House Point-to-Point went ahead on Sunday, which was good news.
Donnchadh Doyle has been the man to the fore in the Point-to-Point scene, with his horses going on to fetch a lot of money at the sales and he unleashed another that set tongues wagging. He’s a horse by No Risk At All, called Welcom To Cartries, and is one for the notebook.
These are the future stars of the game and it’s always good to keep an eye on them before they hit the track in Ireland or England or wherever they end up.
Until next week.
PAT
