Bookies’ Christmas benefit
There’s always a but with these lads, however, and a further explanation revealed they were seriously in need of a decent cash injection, after a couple of bad months.
Personally, I never lose any sleep over on-course, in contrast to off-course, bookmakers getting a few quid. They stand up on the box, put their own money at risk, invite you in, go toe-to-toe and may the best man win.
Looking back over the results for the four days at Leopardstown you can see why most, if not all, managed to show a profit.
For a number of months horses trained by Willie Mullins have had them very much on the back foot and if the Carlow bandwagon had rolled relentlessly on over the Christmas then there might be less demand for the aforementioned boxes in the future.
Mind you Mullins had a reasonably good Leopardstown, managing six winners, and four of them went off favourite.
But that told only part of the tale. The real story was that he supplied no less than nine beaten favourites.
They were Marasonnien (4-6), Champagne Fever (4-5), Sarabad (7-4), Aupcharlie (30-100), Sous Les Cieux (4-9), On His Own (7-2), Mourad (4-5), Thousand Stars (1-1) and Vesper Bell (4-5).
Now there were some really short-priced ones beaten among that lot and they were surely the difference between success and failure for the layers.
The other interesting aspect is that none of Mullins’ six winners was ridden by Ruby Walsh. He was at Kempton on the Monday with Kauto Star, so Paul Townend did the honours on Blackstairmountain at Leopardstown.
Two of Mullins’ winners were in bumpers and were partnered by his son, Patrick. Two were owned by Gigginstown, thus Davy Russell was in the plate, and the other by J P McManus and he was Tony McCoy’s ride.
Some weeks ago we spoke here about the obvious upsurge in attendances at Irish meetings, largely fuelled by quite magnificent National Hunt racing.
I think Leopardstown and Limerick were hugely successful and right now followers of the game simply cannot have enough of it.
We are all aware that the weather this Christmas was particularly benign, but an attendance of 54,750 at Leopardstown and almost 25,000 at Limerick was mighty impressive.
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THE fourth day at Leopardstown saw Colm Murphy’s Glam Gerry win a handicap chase by eight lengths.
He had caught the eye once or twice previously and plenty of us fancied and tipped the horse.
Glam Gerry was a big mover at morning-prices, strong on the track as well and went of what looked a ridiculously tight 13-8 favourite.
He then proceeded to belt his share of fences, some of the errors were of the shuddering variety, but it made no difference and he strolled home.
Watching the contest, my immediate reaction was that the race must have been one of the worst handicap chases every staged at the track.
It seemed the only a logical conclusion, because no horse could have thumped the number of obstacles Glam Gerry did and expect to win.
The handicapper however, was having none of it and promptly moved his rating over fences up by a whopping 20lbs.
If Glam Gerry, the way he jumps, can win off his new mark then it will be nothing short of a miracle!
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TOM SEGAL, in the Racing Post, has deservedly earned a reputation as a top tipster and this week put up Captain Chris at 20-1 as his fancy for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Segal is repeatedly eulogised by the Post, although they do tend to conveniently forget that he sometimes tips two horses in the one race, something which mere mortals would never be allowed to do.
Anyway, that’s neither here nor there. What essentially caught my eye was a piece in the Post the day after Segal had made his case for Captain Chris.
It was from a reader who e-mailed the following: “How can Captain Chris, a horse who won the Arkle last year, win a Gold Cup? The Arkle is two miles and the Gold Cup is three and a quarter miles. He won’t stay.’ Tom Taaffe’s Kicking King immediately came to mind. In 2004 he failed to win the Arkle, finishing second to Well Chief. The following year, Kicking King ran away with the Gold Cup to the tune of five lengths.
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BALLOTING in Irish racing used to be a complete curse when it came to the National Hunt game.
But the massive downturn in the economy has solved that problem and entries continue to dry up.
That is becoming increasingly apparent in bumpers and Thurles today and Naas tomorrow are prime examples. The Thurles bumper attracted just 16 entries, while the figure for Naas was only 11.
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OVER the Christmas period a senior jockey — plenty in the press-room know the story — was reportedly less than impressed by a particular starter.
Indeed, so frustrated did he become that he was heard to mutter the words: “That guy wouldn’t start his car with the keys.”
