RACING RAFFLES HITS
THE youngest horse in the race had travelled the longest distance to land at Fairyhouse but, taking the shortest and fastest way around the track, netted the biggest prize.
French-bred Intense Raffles has only been at trainer Tom Gibney’s Drumbaragh, Co. Meath, yard for four months but his third win in that time, the Boylesport’s Irish Grand National, has him in the record books for sure.
And while the winner’s €270,000 cheque will be cashed by owner/breeders Simon Munir and Isaac Suede in their native France, trainer Gibney gets his name on a great Irish racing trophy and jockey JJ Slevin benefitted from a chance ride due to Daryl Jacob being injured.
Intense Raffles, having wowed racegoers and the TV audience alike in a fiercely-contested National, was led away for his special treat — a bag of tasty, sweet carrots packed that morning by groom Lisa Mirray.
The Star’s Davy Russell had been on the money too, tipping Intense Raffles to become only the fourth six-year-old in 50 years to win the Irish National.
But, interestingly, he was mistaken when speculating it was part of a long-range plan, even if his two runs since arrival in Ireland, in January and then February, were Fairyhouse wins.
“No, it wasn’t planned from a long way out, it just fell into place nicely,” said Gibney after Raffles’ one-and-a-half lengths win over Any Second Now with Minella Cocooner third and Frontal Assault (Russell’s eachway tip) fourth.
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“I suppose the last day we came here we had the National in mind, he was jumping up the weights, he had won here, he had had a light campaign up to now, so there were a lot of things falling into place.
“We had high hopes for him alright, he was second favourite and we were very conscious that he was well weighted in the handicap — gutted for Daryl who missed out on the ride but JJ did a really fantastic job.”
Intense Raffles’ time in French racing consisted of three 2021 Argentan/ Auteuil wins and two seconds in 2022 at Auteuil before what was considered a poor 2023 with a third, fourth and fifth at Auteuil before finishing seventh of eight at Moulin in September.
“They contacted me in September and asked would I like to train one for them and I said we’d love to, so it turned out they wanted to send Intense Raffles and he arrived a little later.
“It’s very easy for the big owners to go to the big yards and