Pride turns up the heat!
Race-goers lap up the warm weather at Curragh
IRELAND was having fun in the sun yesterday as the heatwave reigns – even on the racecourse.
But the country is on track for a bumpy ride as the sizzling 32C conditions have brought a drought alert for the coming week.
In the stands of the Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby Festival at the Curragh racecourse in Co Kildare, Regina Horan was crowned Best Dressed Lady on Irish Derby day.
Ms Horan from Malahide, Co Dublin, who works at the Irish Farmers Journal, wore a boater hat, a floral dress in hot pink with ruffles and carried a matching clutch bag.
On the track, Latrobe, trained by Joseph O’brien and ridden by his brother, Donnacha, won a thrilling title race.
The son of Camelot, who took this prize in 2012 in the hands of Joseph O’brien, battled on superbly to deny Rostropovich and Saxon Warrior, both trained by their father, Aidan.
Donnacha said: “We’ve always thought he was a really good horse and he’s never run a bad race, but we just thought a few times that he’d run better.
“He’s shown today that he’s very good.” Aidan later spoke of his pride at the achievement of his sons. He said: “It’s an unbelievably special day, you couldn’t dream of it. “It would have been a sickener for us to chin the two lads, as I know how hard they work and we know how hard it is and how tough the competition is. I’m over the moon.” With the action heating up on the racetrack, the weather conditions off it show no sign of cooling down. Yesterday Met Eireann issued a Status Yellow warning for drought or near-drought for this week. But the searing summer heat could last well into next month, forecasters have predicted. Met Eireann said: “Some isolated showers may occur during Sunday