Fairyhouse finally get their fences right
No, it was a good day for National Hunt racing in Ireland and further evidence the game is simply booming.
A lot of credit has to go to the Fairyhouse executive, who have clearly learned some important lessons.
Top of the agenda has to be the quality of fences provided for the National. It is no exaggeration to say that Fairyhouse has come in for some fierce criticism in the past.
But the fences on Monday, to this uneducated eye, appeared to be a very fair test of horse and rider.
We all know the best referee in any sport is the one no one notices. Well, it is a bit like that with fences, when you hear no talk about them then you can be reasonably sure they are as near to perfection as possible.
A year earlier 28 lined up for the National. Only ten finished and there were nine fallers.
Monday was so much more exciting, far more edifying. The starter left 26 of them go, 16 finished and there was only one faller.
What it amounted to was a magnificent contest, one that just thrilled the thousands on track and, with massive TV coverage on RTE and ATR, this was a PR dream for all concerned.
And of course the drama that unfolded in the closing stages, with the Walsh dynasty so involved, was a major help.
There was more to the afternoon, however, than just the National. Fairyhouse managed to produce quality racing through a long day and that's why bookmaker turnover was a course record.
The crowd, at 16,600, may have been down on a year earlier, but the turnover came to a whopping €2,068,268.
Compared to a year ago, Fairyhouse had two new races, a three mile conditions hurdle and a novice chase. They replaced a four-year-old hurdle and a beginners chase. Whoever came up with that idea knows precisely what he's at.
The three mile hurdle was won by Afistfullofdollars and was a cracker, both in the betting ring and on track.
Only six went to post for the novice chase, but five of them had a life, and this is the type of race the real punter loves.
Fairyhouse had no beginners chase or maiden hurdle on its Monday programme, a real plus. Everyone knows that only horses, mostly, who aren't very highly regarded by connections, or are going over fences, run in those type of races at this time of the season.
There must have been times over the past few months when Tony McCoy and J P McManus silently wondered why they had teamed-up together.
The well-documented problems of Jonjo O'Neill's yard have seen the duo get off to what has essentially been a miserable start.
Watching McCoy in action at Fairyhouse, however, told you all you needed to know as to why McManus wants him on his side.
McManus' Lost Time, on Sunday, got the full treatment to take a maiden hurdle by three parts of a length.
On Monday, McCoy threw everything at the owner's Man About Town, but he went down by a short head to Tiger Cry.
McCoy then saved the best wine until last, firstly aboard McManus' Like A-Butterfly and then his Ground Ball, both on Tuesday.
He only rode Ground Ball because regular partner, David Casey, got injured in the previous race. On hearing McCoy was replacing Casey, I overheard one genius offer the opinion that Ground Ball wouldn't win because: “McCoy is riding shit.”
Yeah, well one supposes the only answer is to keep taking the tablets!
