PAT HEALY: In this week’s blog Pat starts with the Grand National. Could Noble Yeats do a ‘Tiger Roll’ and win back to back Nationals? …
All about Aintree this week
My first National I attended was when Mr Frisk won in 1990, so I’ve been going to Aintree for over 30 years.
In the last 10 or 15 years, with the standard of racing, the prize money, the facilities and the enclosure, Aintree has come on leaps and bounds. You wouldn’t recognise the race meeting compared to what it was 20 years ago. Now they’ve been rewarded with all the big guns coming there after Cheltenham.
Whereas Cheltenham is spread out, with Aintree you’re in the city and you meet everyone. There’s always a huge Irish contingent that travel over. You see people in Aintree that you don’t see again until maybe Galway and Listowel later on in the year. There’s always great craic. We’re looking forward to a great three days in Aintree.
I can’t wait to see Constitution Hill again, and of course the National. I’m hoping for an Irish success in the race.
I met Emmet [Mullins] racing the other day, and he has a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye at the moment. Noble Yeats’ Gold Cup run was fantastic, and Emmet was awfully pleased that he came out of Cheltenham in tip-top condition. I’d imagine that Emmet is happy with where he has him at the minute, and I wouldn’t be one bit surprised if he does a Tiger Roll and produces back-to-back wins.
Fairyhouse Easter Festival
I was there all three days of the Fairyhouse Easter Festival and what a fantastic meeting it was. We must tip our hats to Peter Roe, Gillian Carey and all the team at Fairyhouse. There was a great buzz and lots of young people racing, which was brilliant to see.
As always, the Irish National never fails to deliver. This year of course I Am Maximus gave Paul Townend his first win in the race, would you believe! His previous best finish in the race was second place a few years ago. It was Willie Mullins’ second Irish National, and a fourth for JP McManus, 40 years after his first with Bit Of A Skite.
The shining light of the race was the ride Paul Townend gave I Am Maximus, who was a maiden over fences. He just let the horse find his rhythm, cajoled him into contention and then got him home. It was a ride for the ages.
No one should be surprised that Paul delivered that ride. There’s a reason why he was second jockey to Ruby Walsh for all those years and a reason why he’s riding for Willie Mullins. He is just one of the greatest Jump jockeys we’ll ever see.
I had to smile to myself when I saw Ruby Walsh running down from the RTE podium, where he was working on live TV, to acknowledge Paul as he was coming into the winners’ enclosure. He’s part of the Willie Mullins team and they are a close-knit group with Willie’s son Patrick, assistant trainer David Casey, and of course Paul, so naturally Ruby would have been delighted that his team won the race, but I just thought it was a big thing for Ruby to run down to greet Paul. I thought that’s a nice touch, and great to see that sort of respect.
JP McManus
What a meeting JP had, with six winners across the three days. We all know the money he puts into the game, and what a support he is to National Hunt racing.
JP was at Fairyhouse on Saturday and Monday, but he gave Sunday a skip because he went to see his Limerick hurling team win the national league final, by beating Kilkenny. The GA is obviously his second love after racing.
Winning an Irish National would mean so much to him. He was joined on Monday by his wife Noreen, his daughter Sue Anne and his grandkids CJ and Cara. As he said himself in his ITV interview with Sally Ann Grassick, ‘you never get tired of winning the Irish National’, and 40 years on from his first success, no man deserves it more than JP McManus.
Willie Mullins’ record-breaking eight-timer
Sunday was all about Willie Mullins, as between Fairyhouse and Cork he trained eight winners. What an achievement! I think his previous best was seven winners in a day.
Willie is recovering after having a hip operation, so he wasn’t racing over the weekend, and we want to congratulate him on his record.
Of course, the logistics of running an establishment like the ones Willie or Gordon [Elliott] has at the moment, they obviously need a lot of people in the team behind them, and what a team Willie has. It’s a fantastic achievement to have eight winners in a day in Ireland.
Phidelma Elvin
Another thing that made me smile in Fairyhouse was the success of Phidelma Elvin in the Ladies National on Saturday, where she rode Gain De Cause to win for Tony Martin and JP McManus.
Phidelma is a great personality and she was all smiles and chat afterwards. I think this is her fourth success under rules. Her dream was to ride a chase winner and to ride a winner in the famous green and gold colours of JP McManus, so she killed two birds with one stone! Well done to her.
Ashroe Diamond brings syndicate big success
There were also great scenes in the winners’ enclosure when Ashroe Diamond won the Grade 1 Mares’ Novice Hurdle.
She’s owned by the Blue Blood Racing Club, who are headed up by James Fenton. This was their first Grade 1 success, and we want to offer huge congratulations to their group. There was so many of them there, they flooded the winners’ enclosure in Fairyhouse.
Ashroe Diamond came back with a nick on her hind leg afterwards, so hopefully she’ll be okay, and if she is then we might see her in Punchestown.
What a horse to have for the Blue Blood Racing Club, she’s brought them many great days and I’m sure there will be more to come.
Until next week.
PAT
