Classic contenders face problems with rules on quarantine
ENGLISH RACING resumed yesterday (Monday) at Newcastle, and Ireland gets going at Naas next Monday.
It is straight into the big stuff, with four Classics in a fortnight. Newmarket stages the British 2,000 Guineas on Saturday and the 1,000 Guineas for fillies on Sunday, preceded by the Group 1 Coronation Cup on Friday.
The Irish Guineas take place a week later at the Curragh, on July 12 and 13, along with four other Group races.
There is no doubt Aidan O’Brien and his Ballydoyle battalions will be launching a major assault on all these races, and Jim Bolger will also be taking a keen interest, but they will to have to overcome some unprecedented problems because of the Covid-19 restrictions.
The quarantine rules will pose a major headache – any Irish personnel that go across to Newmarket, be they riders, grooms or even trainers, will have to go into isolation for 14 days on their return.
The same goes for any British raiders at the Curragh; they will have to be in quarantine here for 14 days in advance of racing – this may cause most of them to stay at home.
O’Brien has won the 2,000 Guineas ten times, including four of the last five years, and he has taken the fillies’ classic five times; he did the double last year with Magna Grecia and Hermosa.
It is to be assumed he will use Ryan Moore for the British rides, and Seamie Heffernan will probably be his number one in Ireland.
However, he may run three in the 1,000 Guineas and the Coronation Cup, and anyone sent from Ireland will be unavailable for the Curragh a week later.
O’Brien is usually very hands-on with his horses, saddling them up himself and watching every last detail; if he travels to England, he also will have to miss the Curragh.
Perhaps he will leave the Newmarket team in the capable hands of vastly experienced travelling head lad, Pat Keating.
He may leave Keating and the Ballydoyle lads in England as he will certainly be sending a big team of horses over to Royal Ascot for the five-day meeting that starts on July 16 and features eight Group 1s and a host of other top races.
This is not a problem that Jim Bolger will have – he is not allowed to attend at all as he is over 70, and the same goes for Jessica Harrington.
Wexford-born Michael Furlong (aged 67) recently retired after 50 years in horses. He was famously connected with Bannow Rambler, trained by Padge Berry and 11/4 favourite for the 1977 Cheltenham Gold Cup after three big wins here in Ireland.
However, luck was not with him and he was brought down by the stricken Lanzarote.
Michael had one other claim to fame – he was the jockey on Barney Curley’s Yellow Sam, a 20/1 no-hoper, when he pulled off Curley’s famous betting coup at Bellewstown in 1975 which netted the gambler £300,000 (estimated to be worth €1.7 million in today’s terms).
When Berry was finishing up, Furlong went to England ‘for a couple of years, and stayed there for 23’. He retired as jockey in 1990 after breaking his leg in 13 places at Plumpton, but he always continued to work with horses.
He finally returned home and spent the last ten happy years working as an exercise rider with Aidan O’Brien at Ballydoyle.
He finally called it a day a couple of weeks ago and is now back living in his home place in Wexford. Good luck to him in his retirement.
Sunday was the 50th anniversary of the death of wonder chaser, Arkle, winner of three Cheltenham Gold Cups (1964, ’65, ’66), and a host of other top races.
He regularly had to give over three stone to good horses in handicaps and still left them in his wake. He was trained by Jim Dreaper, usually ridden by Pat Taaffe, and owned by Anne, Duchess of Westminister, and is generally regarded as the greatest of all time.