PAT HEALY: In this week’s blog Pat starts with a look back at the action at Downpatrick on Randox Ulster National Day …
Ulster National
I was in Downpatrick for their big day of the year, Randox Ulster National Day.
We’ve been signing the praises of Racecourse Manager Richard Lyttle and his team for a long time now, and they are always trying to raise the bar. They were blessed with good weather and there was a huge turnout on track.
Gavin Cromwell and Keith Donoghue won the big race with Malina Girl, to complete a treble on the day for Gavin. It also made it back-to-back wins in the Ulster National for him after Spades Are Trumps won the race last year.
The final race of the day was the hunters’ chase and it saw a fantastic success for rider Cara McGoldrick. It was only Cara’s second racecourse ride and her first success as she rode Shantou Show to win for owner-trainer Sean McParlan. We want to wish Cara many congratulations.
Guineas and Derby Trials at Leopardstown
There was a big upset in the Ballysax, with White Birch (pictured below) winning for John Murphy and Shane Foley. It was a great success for John and his son George Murphy and well done to them.
He’s an exciting horse for them both to have. He hasn’t any Classic entries at the moment, but he’s entitled to go to Epsom now, and why not!
The favourite, Aidan’s [O’Brien] Alexandroupolis, was disappointing, especially after he had won the two other trials with Hans Anderson and the filly Never Ending Story.
Harry Whittington
Harry Whittington announced last Friday that he wasn’t going to renew his licence. He’s now going to involved with pre-training, breaking of young horses and sales consigning.
It probably means that he’ll be working as hard, if not harder than he is now, so he’s not a man that’s afraid of hard work. I suppose Harry just decided that he’d done the maths and he’d be better off going on another tangent in the industry. Harry’s a lovely man and we wish him all the best.
To be successful training now, you have to have the clients and you have to have the horses. I think that’s even more the case nowadays, especially in Ireland, with the powerhouses Willie [Mullins], Gordon [Elliott] and Henry [De Bromhead] have.
If you go to the sales now and buy a horse, it’s going to cost you the guts of 100 grand, that’s the ball-park figure. Point-to-point horses are making 250-400k now. It’s not cheap anymore. One time you could get three or four fellas at the local pub and they’d pool together and they could buy any class of horse, but that’s changed.
Bellewstown cancellation
Bellewstown were unfortunate to lose their fixture last Saturday, after the amount of rain that fell on Friday and all through Friday night. Any track would have struggled to race on the Saturday, with the volume of rain that fell in such a short space of time.
I remember 15-20 years ago in Listowel, we had an April meeting for six years, and on three of those six years it was called off due to the amount of rain. After that we decided it wasn’t worthwhile pursuing. At this time of the year, when you’re just at the back of the winter, tracks do struggle to take the volume of rain.
This is a new fixture in Bellewstown’s calendar, so at least it’s been rescheduled for Thursday. Hopefully they’ll have a good turnout and a great day on Thursday.
Two Easter Festivals on the horizon
Next weekend we’re looking forward to the two big Easter festivals, from Fairyhouse and Cork.
They are two flagship meetings, and the Irish National is the favourite race of mine in the calendar. It’s always a competitive event and is the culmination of Fairyhouse’s Easter Festival.
We wish both racetracks all the best with their big days ahead.
Until next week.
PAT
