Bettyville-bound!
Season to start on St. Patrick’s Day
THE RACING season for 2018 at the Bettyville, Wexford, track makes its traditional start with a €104,000, seven-race National Hunt card on St. Patrick’s Day, with the €26,000 Arctic Tack Stud Veterans’ Handicap Chase being the feature event.
This opening fixture is always well attended if the weather is benign, despite many cultural and sporting counter-attractions. Many people tend to make it a family day out, heading up to Bettyville after the St. Patrick’s Day parades in the morning. The first race is off at 1.55 p.m., but restaurant and bar facilities are open from 12.30 p.m. onwards.
It is hoped a number of trainers, owners and riders will be coming to Wexford in good spirits after scoring major success at the Cheltenham Festival which concludes on Friday.
There are some big games on television on Saturday, with Ireland taking on England in the final big match of the Six Nations rugby championship at Twickenham, and the AIB All-Ireland Club finals at Croke Park.
Michael Murphy, Managing Director at Wexford Racecourse, and his team are taking steps to ensure that fans will be kept up to date. A new larger and clearer big screen will be operating in Wexford for the first time, and a number of extra dedicated TV screens will be available to carry the games.
Michael Murphy was confident that the track will be in tip-top shape for the opening day, fully recovered from The Big Snow. The new ground at the top end and down the back straight will be in use for the first time, after bedding in for a couple of years, bringing the full circuit up to one mile and three furlongs. The new final bend will go into use in a couple of months’ time.
Murphy is very happy with the positive reaction from the racing fraternity to the track’s change of direction to anti-clockwise which is now well established.
‘We now have one of the best courses in the country, with good galloping straights and a testing uphill finish. I am happy the quality of horses coming to Wexford has improved since the change.’
Racing starts at 1.55 p.m. with the first of two €11,500 maiden hurdles over two miles, sponsored by The Pinnacle, Tomcoole, Waters & Kelly’s Farmhouse Bakery, Taghmon, with the 2.30 p.m. race sponsored by The LAD, Murform & McCrea Ltd. Off at 3.05 p.m. is the Neville Hotels Novice Handicap Hurdle of €12,500 (for horses rated 80 to 109) over two miles, followed at 3.40 p.m. by The Micheál O Murchadha Memorial Handicap Hurdle of €16,500 (rated 80-123), over two and a half miles, a race in memory of Michael Murphy’s late father who was a founder of the Bettyville track in 1951.
The Arctic Tack Stud Veterans’ Handicap Steeplechase of €26,000 over two and a half miles is off at 4.15 p.m., and this will feature a number of older horses who have been familiar to supporters for a decade or so.
The Barry Ennis Memorial Novice Handicap Steeplechase of €16,500 over two miles is off at 4.50 p.m., the race in memory of the late Barry Ennis who was one of those who introduced the Spiegeltent to Wexford Festival a few years ago.
Racing concludes at 5.25 p.m. with the Wexford (Pro/Am) Flat Race of €10,000 over two and a half miles.
If the weather gods smile, this should be a good day’s racing and a nice finish to the Cheltenham week.
Remaining 2018 Wexford race dates are: Friday evening, April 6; Saturday afternoon, May 5; Wednesday evenings, May 23, June 6 and June 20; Friday evenings, July 6 and July 27; Saturday afternoon, September 8, and the Wexford Festival meeting on Sunday, October 28, and Monday, October 29.
SUPPORTING THE League of Ireland and the teams therein is very much an acquired taste. It’s certainly not for everyone, at least around these parts where the initial thousand-plus crowds when Wexford Youths debuted in the First Division in 2007 quickly faded away.
Curiosity as much as anything else attracted a lot of spectators in that first campaign, but nowadays the crowd will rarely rise above the 300 mark.
Yet, in other areas of the country there is a dedicated following for the League of Ireland, notably in the current top two of Cork City and Dundalk but also in the traditional strongholds of Sligo and Derry.
There’s also been a re-awakening of interest in one of the sleeping giants, Waterford, after their long-awaited return to the top flight.
And, of course, the big Dublin trio of Shamrock Rovers, Bohemians and St. Patrick’s Athletic have always got plenty of backing.
There’s a wealth of tales to be told and history to be shared since the competition down south started in 1921 as a result of a breakaway from the Irish League which had its roots and base in the north of the country.
And Graham Howard has done a comprehensive job in that regard in his first book, ‘A Fan For All Seasons -
Memories of Irish Football’.
In effect, this is a potted history of the
League of Ireland as the author takes us on a chronological journey from those formative years right up the end of the
2016 season.
His own interest in the football on offer on his own doorstep was piqued as a child by the sight of a similar-aged boy wearing a Shelbourne jersey while walking through Crumlin village.
In time St. Patrick’s Athletic became his team of choice, and his own favourite spot in their Richmond Park ground adjacent to the Camac River has been well-trodden over the past twenty years.
Whelan does a good job in spreading the subject matter around the clubs, although it’s only natural that some figure more prominently than others by virtue of their superior rolls of honour.
Some of the most interesting information relates to the fledgling adventures of League of Ireland clubs in the new European competitions in the late fifties and early sixties.
Shamrock Rovers were the first to compete in 1957, and remember that this was in the era when only the league winners in each competing country took part in the European Cup. Likewise, the make-up of the European Cup-Winners’ Cup was self-explanatory.
And when the Hoops were pitted against Manchester United, it was no surprise that nearly 45,000 people packed into Dalymount Park for the first leg to see a visiting side including Dubliner Liam Whelan, scorer of two goals, secure a 6-0 victory.
The days of similar-sized attendances supporting a League of Ireland team in a European venture are long gone, notwithstanding the best efforts of Shelbourne in the mid-noughties and Dundalk in 2016 to raise the bar.
Given that he’s clearly a League of Ireland die-hard, I’m encouraged by the author’s attitude in the last chapter.
There is a tendency for fans of his ilk to moan about Irish people crossing the water to follow Premiership teams rather than supporting local. However, Whelan differs, and I thoroughly agree:
‘Instead of some clubs and fans bemoaning a perceived lack of patriotism from this section of the Irish football public, their right to choose should be acknowledged and league and club administrators should take on the challenge to win fans over to our home product.’ ALAN AHERNE
Visit The Book Centre on Wexford’s Main Street for the very best selection of sports books.