Prime Beef ready for gold seal
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.
Yesterday, at 11.00, the hordes descended on his base, as Hourigan did his best Ian Botham impression, playing a straight bat on occasions, but smashing some mighty sixes when the opportunities presented themselves.
He bought 67 acres here in '85 and moved in the following year. Eight years later he added another twenty acres. "This was a farm and we built it all up," he says proudly. We move quickly through his yard, stopping to see the equine pool. "When I built that I had no house and a quiet wife," he quips. He turns and tells me I remember the horse who paid for the pool. I do. "Lisaleen Prince paid for it," says Hourigan. "I owned him myself, he won two point-to-points and Nicky Henderson bought him."
We power up the extensive gallops at a fair old speed, with Hourigan making the running. One rotund photographer appears to be struggling! Hourigan has two woodchip gallops and a sand gallop and we watch as his four Cheltenham hopefuls do their work. There are six in all in the gallop, led by Beef Or Salmon, partnered by the trainer's son, Michael junior, and Dorans Pride, who goes for the Foxhunters, with daughter Kay aboard. They are followed by Hi Cloy (SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle), Clonmel's Minella (National Hunt 'Chase) and two others.
Hourigan remarks on how laid-back Beef Or Salmon is. "Nothing seems to bother him. Dorans Pride was the same, I don't know whether it is because they are good horses or what."
This woodchip gallop is a round three furlongs and they do it eight times. They go gently, it's a hack-canter. "It's easy on them, but at the same time they are covering three miles," says Hourigan. "Look at Beef Or Salmon, he will have no problem with good ground, he just floats over it.".
Hourigan talks about his staff over 20 are employed, about son, Michael, and daughter Kay, "she runs the show." Then he produces a typical one-liner. "We've gone up-market and now have a secretary, but I'm still sleeping with the old secretary."
He bought Beef Or Salmon for 6,200 punts at Goffs and then sold him to his current owners, before the horse made his debut in a point-to-point at Dungarvan. Beef Or Salmon has a somewhat obscure pedigree, with his sire, Cajetano, virtually unknown.
Hourigan, recognised as having a rare eye for a bargain, explains: "You know the way you would look at a woman and like the look of her. You might give her a second glance. Well, I liked the look of him."
Work over, we bound back down the gallops. Rotund photographer is now puffing heavily. Hourigan takes a couple of us, who want to hear more, into his office. "I think Beef Or Salmon is the best horse in the Gold Cup, the classiest in the race, but the best horse doesn't always win," he says.
"I thought Dorans Pride was the best horse in the '98 Gold Cup, but he only finished third behind Cool Dawn.
"Beef Or Salmon certainly has the potential to win a Gold Cup, whether it's this year or next. He's running now because he's sound, healthy and has a good cruising speed.
"If he escapes in the first mile and Timmy (Murphy) can do what he wants to do then he will run a very big race. He's a fluent jumper and the better the pace the better he will jump. The Cheltenham fences will be a plus, they are so well presented. The faster pace (compared to the races he has won at home) is not a worry and he will not be hunted round."
Hourigan says he isn't feeling any pressure. "I've been there, done that and have absolutely no nerves at all. I expect I will be a little wound-up on the day."
If Timmy Murphy, with the three months or so he spent in prison still a fresh memory, can partner Beef Or Salmon to victory next week then it will emphasise one more time that the truth is indeed often stranger than fiction.
"Within 48 hours of his release he came here for a week," reveals Hourigan. "And he has been back here for a week since. He didn't talk much about his experience, all he wanted was get focused and do what he was good at. He was well down, but I was so delighted he came. I think Timmy is now a better person, has a nicer manner and is a better man."
It would be some fairytale if he could ride the winner of the Gold Cup. I don't know what it would mean to me, but I would be more excited for Timmy than for Mike Hourigan!"
The irrepressible Mike Hourigan has trained two Cheltenham Festival winners, Dorans Pride (Stayers' Hurdle) and Deejaydee (National Hunt 'Chase). He vividly recalls Dorans Pride in particular, who scored in '95.
"I watched the race in the owners' and trainers' bar. When the commentator said he was cantering coming down the hill my head just went cold. I couldn't wait for him to jump the last."
Dorans Pride, of course, went on to finish third in two Gold Cups. After Beef Or Salmon had won the Ericsson at Leopardstown at Christmas, Hourigan said he believed his latest star was, at the same stage in their careers, two stone a better horse then Dorans Pride.Was he sticking to that assessment? He thinks carefully before replying: "I'm not backing away from it."
