Russell must explain Tram ore horse punch
Top rider’s jab to head of Kings Dolly does racing’s image no favours
Typically, the price collapsed. By the time I got to backing her, the bookmaker was only laying 9/4 and even at that would only take €100.
As I told my buddies at the time, the bet could only fail if Ana got injured. Donnacha duly turned pro and Ana’s season lasted into July 18, when she suffered a fall at Killarney that rendered thoughts of an ante-post bet obsolete.
When Galway came around, another colleague – Niall Cronin of the Herald – spoke about Donnacha as a bet for the senior title at 25/1. He trailed Colin Keane by around 25, yet Cronin could see that Ana’s brother may pick up a lot of her rides and get backing from his dad.
Cronin was not far off and suddenly what seemed a two-horse duel between Pat Smullen, the regular winner, and Colin Keane became something rather deeper. Keane has had such a bountiful campaign that he has traded as short as 4/11 to win the title, yet it was notable and timely that his boss Ger Lyons said last week that the jockey was “in at least third place regarding fire-power”.
Yesterday, Aidan O’Brien downplayed his son’s chance and Dermot Weld said Smullen was up against it. One of them has to win!
Keane’s title bid could not be deemed to have come from out of blue, as he came second to Smullen last term, but it would hinge on the latter’s boss Weld having a quiet year, which he has so far. Keane works his butt off to defy the odds.
He has ridden for an incredible 73 different trainers in Ireland this season. After one mount at the Curragh on Saturday, he did something common in Britain but generally not feasible here: he dashed down the motorway to another meeting, Tramore, where he had a double.
“The title is a thing both Colin and I desperately desire and we’ll be fighting tooth and nail to attain that,” said his agent Ruaidhri Tierney. “We are fully aware what a Trojan effort will be needed, with the calibre of competitors we face and with their powerful backing.
“Colin is a pleasure to deal with. He largely lets me do my job and vice versa. I think what makes Colin such a talented rider is obviously his strength and tactical astuteness, but also his laid-back, almost phlegmatic character.
“Pressure doesn’t come into the equation. Gaps appear and races tend to fall favourably more often than not for him. This, I think, is one common denominator with all high-class riders.”
Keane hit two more at the Curragh yesterday, stretching 10 from Smullen and 19 beyond O’Brien. He has had roughly double the rides of O’Brien, but then a title assault only recently became a realistic option for the latter.
The problem Keane faces is that Weld is now getting going, which will automatically improve Smullen’s prospects, and Smullen has had more rides than his main rival. O’Brien, however, is the dark one.
The young pilot’s hit-rate (22pc) is far ahead of his rivals and it is clear of late that he has been preferred to Seamus Heffernan in some races in which Ballydoyle is double-handed. If Keane is laid-back, so is O’Brien, but they face a terrier of a rival in Smullen, who will be going all-out stay at the top of his profession.
O’Brien may have a fair hill to climb but, like Willie Mullins being around €400,000 in prize-money in arrears going into the Punchestown Festival, it sounds steeper than it is. He has the runaway leader in the trainers’ title backing him, as well as his brother Joseph, who had more winners than Weld this season until Saturday.
The remarkable thing about Keane is he is 22 years of age. It seems a long time since he came to prominence riding the odd one for his dad Ger at Dundalk; even then, one could tell that he had something.
To have Lyons as a mentor has clearly served him well, but there is no getting away from how popular he is with other trainers, and it will be fascinating to see where his long-term future is. He is an exceptional judge of pace, a man to whom panic is anathema.
The beauty of the Mullins-Gordon Elliott war this year was that nobody expected it. Nobody forecast this either and it will be captivating between now and the final meeting of the season on October 28.