Irish follow Inca trail to festival glory
Brave Inca and Tony McCoy won the big race the hard way but it was a victory that went down very well with the elated Irish at Cheltenham.
The crowd whooped, McCoy grinned and trainer Colm Murphy conferred mythically proportioned strengths on horse and man.
“Tony is as tough as old nails and he would probably ride if he had no legs and he had no arms,” he said.
“I think they’re a match made in heaven. One is as tough and the other is tougher, but I don’t know which is which.”
The big bucks champion hurdle wasn’t the only contest to inspire legends. Proving the old adage that last shall be first, Dun Doire came from the rear of the field to beat all in the closing stages of the next race, landing the second Irish winner of the day.
It was to be a lucky three before the day ended when Native Jack dawdled and deceived before getting his skates on and taking the fifth race on the card.
So with three winners apiece after day one, the legendary rivalry between Britain and Ireland at Cheltenham was running deeper than ever.
But if style and drama earn extra points, then the Irish were claiming to be ahead by at least a nose.
Such subtleties don’t count for much with the bookies, however.
They only want to know who ends up in the winners’ enclosure, not how they got there.
Yesterday’s results were good and bad for those paying out through the hatches, despite a rumoured but possibly equally mythical e1.24 million bet on Brave Inca.
Racetracks and rumours, the Irish and Cheltenham - matches only heaven could arrange.
