Prime Beef ready for gold seal

Pat Keane gets it straight from the horse’s mouth on Beef or Salmon’s chances at Cheltenham

IN the early hours of next Monday morning Beef Or Salmon will leave Rosslare, blissfully unaware he is set to carry the hopes of a nation. At around 4.00 that afternoon the seven-year-old will arrive at Cheltenham Racecourse, leaving just three days between him and possible Gold Cup immortality.

Michael Hourigan trains Beef Or Salmon at his sprawling Lisaleen Stables, just outside Adare in the heart of Co. Limerick. For weeks the handler had been inundated with requests for interviews and to accommodate everything else that goes with having, as one of your 90 inmates, the second favourite for the biggest prize in National Hunt racing. Hourigan quickly decided, if he was to facilitate everyone, he could almost forget about training a horse who has shot up through the rankings with astonishing rapidity. He concluded that devoting one day to the needs of all was the way to go.