'And the winner is...' — Crowning the best of the jump season
A fitting finish: Noble Yeats and Sam Waley-Cohen win the Randox Grand National Handicap Chase.
Any midweek evening meeting at an Irish provincial track can be golden. Low-cost admission, no more than a fiver a pint, doddery old carnival rides for the kids, greasy burgers at picnic tables, local bookies betting to 140% and punters much too polite to pass them by. Old friends shaking hands amid a constant hubbub of catch-up chatter. As a proxy for all, Kilbeggan on an early summer Thursday evening. Low grade horses galloping past rolling eskers while a 59-year-old amateur jockey gives television interviews after riding his first winner after 40 years a’ trying. And Willie, as usual has something decent for the bumper. You can’t buy evenings like this.
