Saville Row looks made to measure for punters
There’s an inspection today but they seem to be confident enough and all credit to them if they manage it. All going well I’ll have a full load heading down to Mallow.
We were reduced to indoor schooling on Monday and Tuesday this week but at least we were able to keep them moving and you can have a bit of a canter in there.
Then I got my hands on a snow plough and we cleared the bottom of the main road in front of our place. That enabled us to get to The Curragh.
We took 12 there on Wednesday on the polytrack and it was a little bit dicey so we didn’t want to go too quick. But it was better on Thursday and yesterday it was very good.
We’ve been surprised by how little fitness the horses have lost but of course they’ll be going into very heavy ground now by and large and if there’s any chink in the armoury, that will find it out.
I really do hope that we’re going forward now again but the forecast doesn’t look great for next week and I’m really rather depressed about it. I’ve never seen it this bad this early in the year and the prospect of there being more to come isn’t really worth thinking about.
Looking at Cork, they haven’t had snow and I don’t think they’re going to get much rain. What they have had is a lot of frost and usually the ground when you come out of that is fairly tacky.
With that in mind, you just won’t be too sure what will happen. Roberto Goldback runs in the hot Grade 2 Hilly Way Chase. Two miles bit be a bit short for him but it was a chance of a run so we had to take it.
No One Tells Me is in the mares’ novice chase. I had wanted to run her in the memorial race for my brother at Fairyhouse but that has been postponed so many times I can’t wait when this opportunity has come along. Who knows, she might still run at Fairyhouse if that goes ahead next week and she comes out of this one well.
The Bull Hayes is in the maiden hurdle and after two good seconds I’d be hopeful he will get off the mark while Art Music and Seaway Prince will take their chances in the bumper.
Saville Row runs in the Grade 3 three mile hurdle. I’m hoping he’ll run a big race because he was very good first time out to beat the favourite Jakros from Noel Meade’s yard. Having said that, it is only the second race of his life.
Of course there’s a real big campaign now for AP McCoy to be named the BBC Sports Personality of the Year and we have the big Vote for AP Gold Cup at Cheltenham today. It would be amazing if he was to win the race on board Tom Taaffe’s Finger Onthe Pulse.
I really do hope he gets it and I don’t think there’s anybody that could argue he doesn’t deserve it. Winning the Grand National was brilliant for him and it’s the race everybody outside of racing knows about but he has been at the top for so long, breaking record after record. He is incredible and it would be great for him if he got the nod.
It would be great for racing too of course because for some reason racing doesn’t have a great profile in the sporting world, not to mind the world in general.
Maybe that’s our own fault. Maybe we don’t do enough to promote the sport outside of racing. Maybe we’re a little bit too much inward-thinking. It’s one of the things we need to think about if we want to get more people going in the gates.
The thing is, that racing is perceived as being elitist and being a rich man’s sport but it’s not. It affects every community. It’s one of the most Irish things there is.
