Patrick Mullins
Limini the one to get me level with dad’s record
IT was the middle of the seventies, on the twisty road home from Galway to Duninga in Kilkenny and my father and uncle Tony were sitting sheepishly in the back of the car. I’m sure it was still black and white then. Willie had been beaten in the bumper and Tony had lost a hurdle race he should have won. The radio was probably on.
Not a word had been said since leaving Ballybrit until eventually my grandfather Paddy, the Boss, turned to my grandmother and in typically succinct fashion declared to her: “Your children will be the ruin of me!”
Twenty or so years later, in 2009, I was driving my father’s car home after flying home far too late to finish second in the bumper.
While it was no longer black and white, the road is still as twisty as ever and I hit a bullseye on a large pothole. “Pull in! You’ve done enough damage today without breaking my car too!”
Later in the week, I came back in to a text telling me he’d left straight after the start. I’d been too far back again, never mind that I finished last, and I could hitch a ride home with the lorry. Which was full.
That road home felt all the more twisty travelling in the back with the horses. I’ve organised different travel arrangements ever since!
So while Galway may not be Leopardstown at Christmas, Punchestown in spring, Ascot in summer or Cheltenham in March, it matters.
The racing this week will be a kaleidoscope of talent but I’ve won bumpers here on a future Champion Hurdle winner, Annie Power, and an Irish St Leger winner, Wicklow Brave. That’s how good they need to be sometimes, at least if they have me on their back.
It is a devilishly tricky track to ride. It is tight, so you can’t be too wide. The steep descent from when you appear behind the castle makes Epsom look like a child’s slide and can easily get you racing too soon before tackling the long climb home.
The feature race today is the Carlton Hotels Amateur Handicap,
which is essentially the amateur derby. Every amateur wants to win it. My father won it back in 1985 on a horse called Pargan, with 12st 7lb on his back, and I desperately want to level the score with him.
This year would look my best chance yet. I had a difficult decision to make between Chelkar and Limini. Chelkar ran a fantastic race in Royal Ascot on his return from a long absence, finishing just behind Stratum, who has since bolted in a valuable handicap in Newbury.
I’ve no doubt he is better than his current mark of 100 but only one horse in the past 15 years has carried top weight to victory – Ghimaar in 2009 – and he had Robbie McNamara claiming 3lbs. So it’s an unenviable task.
However, he is built to carry the weight and I doubt there have been as many unexposed top weights as him recently.
Instead I chose Limini. She has a Cheltenham Festival success under her belt and form with Apples Jade and Vroum Vroum Mag, not to mention Buveur D’Air and Petit Mouchoir.
She beat a horse called Manatee on her last flat win before joining us and he went on to be rated 117. So obviously Limini could be very well treated off 89.
Her weight of 11st 3lb is just above my minimum and was the deciding factor in choosing her. However, the worry is that this is her first run in 16 months and she has been hard to train.
Her draw of nine should give me options, but the lightning charge of 80 thundering hooves to the first bend can send anyone’s plans out the window. You have to play the cards as they come off the deck.
Our other runner, Uradel, should not be forgotten. Again he is unexposed off his flat mark, gets in at bottom weight and has the assistance of last year’s winning rider, Aubrey McMahon. He would be a decent play for each-way punters.
In the bumper I ride a King’s Theatre point-to-point winner called Royal Rendezvous. Unfortunately, they aren’t making any more King’s Theatres and I really like this horse.
He is above average and I’ll be disappointed if he isn’t heavily involved in the finish.
Galway has sent me home disappointed many times, though, and I fear Dermot Weld’s Neptune, which is a Galileo brother to an Irish 1,000 Guineas winner. My cousin Emmet’s Zero Ten is also in with a real chance.
Hopefully I can get a winner to start the week and not have to hitch a lift home!