Tradition the only explanation as huge crowd descends on Listowel
How else can you explain in excess of 26,000 making their way to Listowel on Wednesday for the Kerry National?
I must admit that races like the Kerry National, the Grand National at Fairyhouse, or the Galway Plate hold little or no attraction for this observer.
They may be decent enough spectacles, but are usually savagely competitive contests and, frequently, bookmakers’ benefits.
But the public seem to love them and you won’t stay in business unless you give customers precisely what they want.
The bottom line is that to get a crowd of that magnitude - and they flocked to the track again yesterday - to make their way to north Kerry in the middle of the week is a seriously good performance.
Of course this particular Kerry National saw the layers largely singing from the rooftops.
The eventual winner, White Star Line, was very difficult to fancy.
Prior to his massive success all he had ever won previously was a maiden hurdle at Naas and that was in January of 2011.
He had run 20 times before Listowel and was, essentially, something of a professional loser.
But the first prize of €96,350 will have done much to ease the frustrations of the past!
The second, Carlingford Lough, emerged from the race with great credit, but will certainly test the skills of his trainer, John Kiely, in the future.
He went up 14lbs for winning the Galway Plate, running off a mark of 147.
He is not going to be easy to place from here on in, having moved to 150, following his Listowel exploits.
Listowel, of course, mostly doesn’t get the top-class National Hunt horses any more, because the overall campaign has become so much longer and trainers are in no hurry starting off their inmates.
That said, however, there was so much to like about the performance of Paul Fahey’s Lots Of Memories in a novice hurdle on Wednesday.
He first caught our imagination when winning a bumper at the Punchestown Festival in April.
Then he made his debut over jumps at Killarney, finishing second, after running far too freely and being hampered on two occasions.
It nearly went pear-shaped at Listowel as well, because he was set for a comfortable victory when almost on the floor at the last.
He just looks one to keep on the right side.
Tuesday at Listowel didn’t half emphasise that trainer Paul Deegan knows the time of day.
The ground was most testing for flat horses and if a yard was intent on going for a touch then they had to be absolutely certain they were shovelling their money on a mud lark.
Deegan’s Shining Emerald, in a two-year-old maiden, was taking on a promising Ballydoyle horse in Masai, among others.
But the son of Clodovil was a major order in the market and left the gate burdened with major responsibilities.
He didn’t just win, he did so by a staggering 16 lengths. Now that’s what you’d call a sound investment.
We are, of course, referring to those of equine disposition, rather than human.
Take last Sunday’s Irish St Leger at the Curragh, for instance, and the extraordinary six-length success of Dermot Weld’s mare, Voleuse De Coeurs.
The four-year-old’s prep run had seen her produce a cracking effort, admittedly, in finishing half a length second behind Royal Diamond in a Group 3 at the Curragh.
But come the Leger, on exactly the same terms, she had Royal Diamond 11 lengths behind in fifth place.
That could only be described as a stunning turnaround.
Then on the same Curragh card what about John Oxx’s filly, Ebaniya, in a 12 furlongs maiden?
She shaped like the clear form horse, having run the colt, Murphy’s Delight, to half a length at Roscommon.
Back in third place, a further four and three-quarter lengths away, was Wandering Star. He renewed rivalry with Ebaniya at the Curragh , but all logic indicated was safely held.
But, of course, Wandering Star simply strolled to victory, while Ebaniya performed like a filly that had been chained to the kitchen sink for a week, tenth of eleven.
Mind you one of the more inspired members of the press corps helped himself to Wandering Star at 10-1 each way in the morning, so we could do with a rub off him!
to win last Saturday’s English Leger at Doncaster with Leading Light.
To lay out the horse for the race, off the track for 85 days, from Royal Ascot in June was some performance.
And it wasn’t as if Leading Light had a won a race that was of any great consequence at Ascot, the Queen’s Vase.
That is a two-mile grueller and history has taught us to be, generally speaking, less than respectful to horses who turn up in that particular contest.
But Leading Light is clearly a long way removed from your typical Queen’s Vase contestant and is likely to prove such thinking correct in the future.
