'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.
To borrow Micheal Ó Muircheartaigh’s legendary description of Seán Óg Ó hAilpín's hurling heritage, “his jockey is from Sligo, his trainer from Scotland, neither a racing stronghold.”
The jockey, Derek Fox, was under instructions from the trainer Lucinda Russell to set off in mid division and see what might happen. The Ultima is as ultra-competitive three-mile handicap chase for hardened and robust stayers and deviations from a plan can be fatal. He missed the break and toddled around at the very back of the field for a circuit. The icy veined Fox then began to pick them off, one at a time, and produced Corach Rambler after the last to win. Ruby Walsh, who knows a thing or two about race-riding called it a ‘brilliantly executed ride.’
Spoiler alert: Shishkin beats Energumene by a length in the end and yes, it did live up to the hype. This race will sit prominently in jump racing archives alongside the Arkle v Mill House 1964 Gold Cup or that memorable Tingle Creek when Moscow Flyer beat Well Chief and Azertioup. The first joy was that in a time when some trainers prefer avoidance to engagement both Shiskin and Energumene turned up for the fight. The second joy was the tactical beauty of the contest. Energumene purring along in front, Shishkin running with the choke out after a bad mistake at the sixth. Three lengths down at the last, Shishkin digs deep to lead at the line. Breath-taking stuff and hopefully the first in a series of many great clashes.
You train a young horse to win a bog-standard maiden hurdle at Navan just over a year ago so it’s time to make a plan. Get a few novice chases into Noble Yeats and then send him to Aintree to win the Grand National. What could possibly go wrong? Nothing, because that is exactly what happened. In doing so he became the first seven-year-old to win since 1940 and one of very few novices to collect the iconic prize. Noble Yeats' original owner Paul Byrne sold him on the Whaley Cohen family in the spring but remained at the heart of the plot. Byrne and Emmet Mullins are two of the more innovative thinkers in the racing and should be worth watching for years to come.
In the aftermath of Cheltenham’s opening race Constitution Hill’s owner, Michael Buckley suggested that the five-year-old’s next stop would be Punchestown for Friday's Champion Hurdle. His ambition was as understandable as it was unrealistic. Before the race even started it looked to be the most competitive of the week with Jonson, The Mighty Potter, Dysart Dynamo and Kilcruit all lining up. It turned into an almighty rout. Constitution Hill took it up two out and trounced subsequent Grade One winner Jonbon by 22 lengths. It was visually impressive and the clock agreed – a new track record time and 12 seconds faster than the course and ground average.
Armagh native Brian Hughes drives well over 100,000 kilometres a year, mostly to unimportant tracks in the north of England to ride moderate racehorses for small purses. It’s a formula that works well for him and last week earned him his second British title in three years and became only the fourth jockey to ride over two-hundred winners in a jump season.
Yet, despite being champion jockey, he had no rides at Cheltenham and wasn’t needed for the Grand National. This is exactly how the limelight averse Hughes likes things. “I don’t crave accolades or fanfare,” he says. “I prefer to be on the outside looking in rather than being the centre of attention.” A vastly underappreciated talent.
There were many strong candidates for this year’s gong, most of which would cruise home on the bridle in any normal year. Unattended horses being doped at racecourse stables. Officials seizing unexplained animal remedies in highly publicised raids in Kildare. Jim Bolger predicting that there will be ‘a Lance Armstrong in Irish racing.’ But the clear winner is Robbie Dunne and the BHA. Dunne for his harassment of a young woman, Bryony Frost, and the BHA in a best non-supporting role for its glacial ineptitude in dealing with the charge and its tone-deaf behaviour during the subsequent appeal.
If you are ever tempted to drive a car to the racecourse during Cheltenham festival week, please don’t. If you choose to ignore this sage advice then make sure you pack a couple of days worth of provisions, a sleeping blanket and a small commode. Nothing moves anywhere fast near that place. Which serves to highlight the remarkable efficiency of the Garda traffic unit at Punchestown. There never seems to be more than a dozen officers on duty but armed only with a couple of glow sticks and a stern look that withers you to the bone when you try to game their system, cars flow through north Kildare on the last week of April like a warm knife through butter.
