University president favourite to land punter’s prize

A HANDFUL of winners in the next fortnight is all that stands between former University College Dublin President Dr Art Cosgrove and a racing tipster’s top prize of almost €40,000.

The 66-year-old historian is joint favourite to emerge on top from the last four of more than 3,000 entrants in the Racing Post newspaper’s Search For a Tipster competition.

Over the last four weeks, he has made it through a number of rounds, in which punters pick 15 runners over five days between Saturday and Wednesday.

Dr Cosgrove looked to have jumped his last hurdle last Wednesday morning, trailing his opponent Karl Hedley considerably. But a 20-1 winner at Lingfield that afternoon put him into the semi-final and shortened his own odds to be the outright winner to 2-1.

“I surprised myself with that winner, I knew I had to go all out with a long price runner to have any chance. I knew Binnion Bay was coming back to his best and was running his favourite distance,” he explained.

The Newry-born academic’s knowledge and love of racing stems from growing up in a family-run bar, where customers were both Catholic and Protestant.

“Religion and politics were contentious subjects for discussion and football could also throw up contention, so horse racing was about the only ecumenical subject to talk about,” he said.

Dr Cosgrove lives in Foxrock, Co Dublin with his wife Emer and two of their nine children.

His opponent in the semi-final beginning tomorrow is Belfast man Karl Hedley, and both are already guaranteed £2,000 (just over €3,000) each for getting this far. But, with more than €7,500 on offer to the losing finalist and £25,000 (€37,600) going to the winner, it is all to play for in the two weeks ahead.

“It would be nice to win it all right but I’ve already got £2,000, which is nice no matter what happens next week,” Dr Cosgrove said.