Sum Leader offers up rich pickings

POWER and money mingle with ease in Galway. Where else would you see the Taoiseach having a laugh with billionaires like Michael Smurfit and JP McManus?

There he was, bubbly Bertie flanked by Tourism Minister John O'Donoghue enjoying a brief chat with JP and Mike after the second race.

The electorate might be less inclined to exchange pleasantries with Bertie these days, but men with some of the deepest pockets in Europe have no problem with it at all.

Bertie left the Fianna Fáil tent, which yesterday housed 280 guests who forked out 225 for a three-course meal, just before the second race.

He was accompanied by his niece Aileen Breen from Co Kildare and her husband Mark. The group watched from the main stand as the Bertie-backed Sum Leader won the race at odds of 5/2.

The Taoiseach also bagged the winner in the first race, Clounties Hill, thanks to a tip he got from FF Kerry North TD Tom McEllistrim.

Then it was a short hop down to the winners' enclosure where he met trainer Christy Roche and some of the country's fabulously rich.

McManus insisted that "nothing controversial" was discussed during the short encounter and the talk was all about football with Bertie reflecting on Dublin's loss to Armagh, while John O'Donoghue lamented Kerry's problems in the back line.

This was a Bertie walkabout that lacked the zest of previous years, his quick movement through the crowds definitely a shadow of the gregarious Ahern circa Election 2002.

Meanwhile, back in the FF tent, former Finance Minister Ray MacSharry and one-time party fundraiser Des Richardson sat at the Taoiseach's table.

Bertie is soon expected to depart for his daughter Georgina's wedding to Westlife's Nicky Byrne outside Paris on August 9. He will also holiday with daughter Cecelia in Kerry.

The FF meal, which included salmon with lemon mayonnaise,

Cajun-baked sea bass and banoffi bavarois with strawberries, was also enjoyed by newsreader Ann Doyle and restaurant owner Dan McGrattan.

Social and Family Affairs Minister Mary Coughlan, Agriculture Minister Joe Walsh and Junior Transport Minister Jim McDaid, accompanied by Siobhan O'Donnell, were also among the 21,000 punters on day two of the races.

Then FF tent, which will seat 46 tables of 10 today, costing 3,500 each, has been running for 10 years and will net FF more than 150,000 this year. Just as well there's a few complimentary sets of golf balls at every table. "It's one of our most successful fundraisers and long may that continue," Ray MacSharry said.

Meanwhile, back on the course where the ordinary people of the world had to queue for everything from kebabs to pints, the best known man in Clare, Ger Loughnane, was enjoying the races.

The former Clare hurling manager was joined by his friend and hurling analyst Tony Considine.

"We usually come up on Tuesday and I try to get a few tips from Tony but he'd never tell you anything," Loughnane said.

Anne Charleston, who plays Madge in the TV soap Neighbours, was also seen sipping champagne at Ballybrit yesterday.

The mixed weather wasn't helping the fashion stakes and many ladies were just getting a feel of the ground ahead of ladies day tomorrow.

Emily Jean O'Byrne and Deirdre Morahan from Newcastle, Co Galway, will return tomorrow in the hope of winning the number one fashion prize. Others such as Gretta Kelleher from Rathcormac, Co Cork, said she was in Galway only for "fast horses".