KEEPING US ON TRACK WITH TOP RACING
THERE may be no racegoers and no owners but the white flag is raised for the seventh Longines Irish Champions Weekend.
And Barbara White, head of marketing and PR at Horse Racing Ireland, is braced for 10-hour days at Leopardstown today and the Curragh tomorrow. As she says of racing: ‘It’s addictive.’
The equine excellence gallops across the sporting landscape with the gifted Ghaiyyath favourite to land the €750,000 Irish Champion Stakes today, before four Group Ones across the Kildare heath, including the Irish St Leger.
A tie-up between HRI and North American Thoroughbred Racing (NTRA) colleagues has led to an innovative subplot to the ‘Champions Weekend’ schedule. Catch-lined, ‘Win and you’re in’, it gives free entry to the Breeders Cup for all Group One winners this weekend.
‘It’s an incentive for owners and trainers from overseas to be part of HRI’s International Flat Festival,’ explains White, who has been on the HRI payroll since March 2004. ‘We’ve seen Irish trainers compete and be successful all around the world; Aidan O’Brien, Dermot Weld and Jim Bolger among others.
‘The Longines Irish Champions
Weekend was devised as a way of bringing top trainers to our turf for a premier Flat weekend of racing. Getting a star name like Ghaiyyath is an example of that.
‘It sometimes feels like minutes but I love my job.’
In what way? ‘I’m fascinated by sports-people, their competitive edge, that inner drive,’ she says.
‘In racing, you have to be so resilient. It’s a sport where you lose more than you win. It’s addictive. I love being on the road, going to yards.
‘I love the Champions Weekend, the fleeting brilliance of the Flat horses, how their trainers get them prepared to run so fast at two and three. The access the trainers and jockeys provide is unique to racing. Nothing is too much trouble.’
Pushed, White admits that the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham is her favourite race, and Hardy Eustace’s second win in 2005 remains her stand-out moment. ‘He was so tough to get past, especially that day,’ she recalls.
She loved the way Hurricane Fly was ‘bullet-proof’ at Leopardstown, was privileged to witness Sea The Stars win the Irish Champion Stakes, and got a huge professional and personal lift after the success of the Pat Smullen Champions Race For
Cancer Trials Ireland race last year at the Curragh.
‘To see all those legendary jockeys come together for Pat, and then go out and give their all on the track too, was a very special moment,’ she says.
For any public relations or media figure in a major sporting organisation, this has been a demanding year due to Covid-19.
Trying to generate an awareness in your sport isn’t easy when so little has been happening. White has been busier than most as racing was back up and running before anyone else, on June 8. The Irish Derby and the Galway festivals were run off on schedule, while the only big racing casualty has been the Irish Grand National.
White has been overseeing stable visits and Zoom calls to trainers, clearing the media to attend meetings and constantly updating the HRI’s social media outlets.
This weekend, Fran Berry and Daragh Ó Conchúir will keep the racing social media audiences engaged via ‘Champions Couch’.
‘The biggest challenge has been to keep racing in the minds of the public. To some, the sport is all about the social side, others see it from the sporting perspective, for others it’s about betting. We have to target all audiences.’
As racing takes place, amid masks and hand sanitisers and proper spacing, White acknowledges there has been a lack of buzz at tracks.
‘At Galway you’d always have a syndicate with a winner, and they’d lift the roof off no matter what race it was; it’s like the Irish Grand National but this year it was quiet,’ she admits.
While racing thunders on, the GAA Championship season remains in cold storage and looks like staying there, much to White’s dismay for she’s an ardent Dubs fan.
Growing up in Portmarnock, Naomh Mearnóg were her club, Shane Ryan was the local hero, and she is a huge Dubs supporter. ‘I was at all the five-in-a-row finals and got to two of the National League games this year, against Kerry and Donegal,’ she says proudly.
Her favourites? ‘Stephen Cluxton and Kevin McManamon.’
From blue-bloods in blue jerseys to blue-blood thoroughbreds in silks, at least White has the Longines Irish Champions Weekend to compensate for a September without football.
“I love being
on the road, going to yards”