Geraghty just gets better with age
Equally, you would have to conclude that Barry Geraghty winning his first National was the undoubted highlight.
Geraghty is a popular guy, helpful, mannerly, but above all a quite magnificent jockey.
Wine connoisseurs say that beverage gets better with time and it is certainly a remark which can be more than levelled at Geraghty.
In September, he will be 35 years-of-age and rapidly entering the veteran stage for National Hunt pilots.
But there is absolutely no diminishing of his powers and he has to be rated in the top three jockeys riding today, alongside Walsh and McCoy.
The National, run in his home county, was the one he was missing and must have been eating away at him.
To put the record straight had to give Geraghty enormous satisfaction. He has won so many big races, his record is just staggering. Geraghty’s first success at the Cheltenham festival came on Moscow Flyer in the Arkle Chase in 2002.
By my reckoning his total at the festival now stands at 31 and that includes all of the major prizes. Geraghty has won the Gold Cup twice, on Kicking King and Bobs Worth, the Champion Hurdle on Punjabi and Jezki, the Stayers’ Hurdle with Iris’s Gift and More Of That and the two-mile Champion Chase has come his way on no less five occasions. He’s taken the contest twice on Moscow Flyer and also won with Big Zeb, Finian’s Rainbow and Sprinter Sacre.
As well as that the Aintree Grand National was safely tucked away on Monty’s Pass for Jimmy Mangan in 2003.
He then made history in 2009 when guiding Punjabi to victory in the Champion Hurdle.
What it meant was that he had become the first jockey to win the Grand National and also the four main races at Cheltenham, Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle, Stayers’ Hurdle and Champion Chase.
Geraghty is a tremendous man for the big day and seems blessed with an excellent temperament.
Indeed, his boss, Nicky Henderson, emphasised as much after he had won on the trainer’s Une Artiste in the contest following the National.
I thought his display on Shutthefrontdoor in the National showcased just about everything that is good about him.
He always had the winner well positioned, but it was his display from the final fence to the line that was so stirring.
There was almost a savagery about him, a controlled fury that simply galvanised Shutthefrontdoor to go forward in a manner that offered his partner no choice. It was a rider right at the top of his game and simply a joy to watch.
, when the ground was rather surprisingly described last Sunday morning as soft, has the potential to do some good.
It has, as long as the Turf Club takes on board what are important issues and doesn’t satisfy itself by giving Cork a rap on the knuckles and then quickly moving on.
We know Cork watered more than they should have, according to Turf Club guidelines and against the wishes of the clerk of the course, Val O’Connell, who is also the inspector of courses.
But the problem with the current system is that the relevant clerk sees a track for maybe a couple of hours, whereas the people on the ground are there every day and, really, have to be regarded as the best judges.
Cork, for instance, is a racecourse with the capacity to dry out rapidly and the directors and management appear to have formed the opinion the amount of water that was put on the track simply wasn’t going to be sufficient.
And do you know what the vast majority, I would contend, who ran horses there at the National Hunt meetings on Sunday and Monday would agree with them.
We are well aware you have to have a system in place and can’t have directors and managers making decisions that can only lead to a free-for-all-anarchy almost.
But surely the time has come to give to give the locals, those who know their own tracks better than anyone, a greater say when it comes to watering.
The Turf club should at least have the debate, simply taking the easy way out and admonishing Cork won’t be near good-enough.
has to be regarded as very much a possible star of the future.
At Fairyhouse on Monday, having just a second outing, he won a bumper going away by an impressive seven lengths.
Horses win bumpers like that on a regular basis in this country, so why is he worth more than a second glance?
The reason is that he left his first run at Cork miles behind at Fairyhouse and that is always highly encouraging.
He ran a nice sort of race at Cork, admittedly, beaten four and a quarter lengths and a neck into third place behind Killer Crow and Starry Knight.
But when Starry Knight finished out with the washing behind Badgerfort at Cork last Sunday, it was hardly a ringing endorsement for Investmentsuccess.
So, Fairyhouse had to be regarded as a big improvement on his initial effort and, when a horse rises well above his form, it is nearly always a particularly good sign.
