Geraghty worth his weight in gold to Henderson
For many years Mick Fitzgerald was the top man at Hendersons, until serious injury intervened, and he was a particularly hard act to follow.
But the transition to Geraghty has been seamless and he has been a massive help in Henderson’s bid to wrest the trainer’s championship away from Paul Nicholls.
Perhaps, it was a very good time for Geraghty to join Henderson, because this is a trainer with a yard chockful of talented horses.
But there are plenty of people in different sports who have been handed a major opportunity and failed to handle the pressure.
Not so Geraghty. This is one of the biggest jobs in National Hunt racing, but he has embraced the challenge and simply flourished as the campaign has progressed.
At Ascot last Saturday Geraghty and Henderson joined forces to land four of the seven races.
Master Of The Hall started the ball rolling with a smooth success in a novice chase, then Riverside Theatre took the Grade 1 chase, Sprinter Scare won over flights and the day was rounded off with victory for Mono Man in the bumper.
All four wins were executed to perfection by Geraghty and, in some ways at least, he reminds one of Pat Smullen on the flat.
He has that same capacity to keep it simple, to make it look easy. And showboating – one or two others could take a leaf from his book – is just alien to the man.
Geraghty is a brilliant steeplechase rider and his ability to get a flying leap from his partner at a final fence has become almost legendary.
His strike rate in Britain this season is quite astonishing. Tony McCoy, well on the way to being champion yet again, has a strike rate of some 20%, which is impressive, considering the huge number of rides he has had.
But it pales into insignificance compared to Geraghty, who is currently hitting about 31% of winners to rides.
* THERE was a smashing card at Naas last Sunday, but I gather lots of people were very annoyed regarding the sideshows that went on in the parade ring.
I wasn’t at Naas, but, apparently, what was dubbed as the Jockey Olympics took place between races, hosted by Hector, who is not everyone’s cup of tea.
I received a phone call during racing from a regular punter who was apoplectic. Not normally given to using bad language, he made an exception on this occasion.
That night an even more regular punter came on and related much the same story – he too was far from pleased with what he regarded as a quite unwelcome distraction.
You can’t blame Hector. He is hired to do a job and, like John McCririck, produces an act for his audience.
McCririck, for instance, will sit in the press room at Cheltenham for four mornings and you wouldn’t even know he was there. Then in the afternoon, he pops in front of a camera and it’s like looking at a different person.
This Hector phenomenon has been going on for a long time in Irish racing. Personally, I’ve never, ever been able to understand what he brings to the table, but as long as the people who run certain aspects of the game in this country keep asking him to do a job, he’d be a fool not to oblige.
* PADDY POWER are renowned for giving value to punters, with a variety of offers which often make plenty of appeal.
Many of us have benefited from their largesse, whether it’s enhanced prices, double result, having a wager after the off, getting money back if your horse doesn’t take part, or whatever.
But they weren’t half taking the mick in the Grade 2 novice chase at Naas last Sunday. The mick bit centres on their betting without the favourite, Roi Du Mee.
This is what they thought was acceptable on Sunday morning: 8-11 Alpha Ridge, 10-11 Ad Idem and 80-1 Saddler’s Native. So two odds-on shots in the one race, what a joke. If Alpha Ridge was an 8-11 chance then Ad Idem had to be evens.
To bet any other way was merely treating your clients with disdain.
