Live Racing
12.55pm Virgin Media One & UTV
From day one of a five-year stretch in Rockwell, the bell tower was just another no- go area for us boarders. Still, we were daredevils back then and young enough to think we knew everything. Hungry as jackals, collar-sniffing prefects patrolled the grounds fiendishly, which set back our off-limits operations. But the day did come when we finally outfoxed them... All the way up to the belfry. On top of the world!
The Rock of Cashel within eyeshot and The Golden Vale spreading out like a carpet to the foot of the Galtees. “Looking good,” we giggled, training those purloined binoculars on fields so way- off-limits and our long-sought target. And then, lo and behold, a string of them on the trot, small as seahorses at first, but growing into focus. Out on their evening gallops they were, from the stable of the world’s most famous trainer, Vincent O’brien. Ballydoyle: so near and yet so far... Out of bounds. “Mission accomplished,” we howled from the bell tower, to a fiendish echo from the sniffing jackals below.
After the greatest trainer of all time retired, Ballydoyle came under the mastership of another unrelated O’brien, named Aiden. The second coming!
What his predecessor achieved under both codes of the sport can scarcely be matched in the annals of the Turf. Three Gold Cups and Champion Hurdles at Cheltenham, etc, ad infinitum, before taking classic records on the Flat to another level.
Before 1980, The Grand National (4.00pm) was the most formidable challenge ever known to man or beast. Fifty-plus runners, over 4½ miles and 30 fences, monstrous and unforgiving. Check out footage from the 1950s or ’60s and you’ll certainly get the picture!
It was a herculean feat undoubtedly for the redoubtable past Master of Ballydoyle to pull off three consecutive victories with Early Mist, Quare Times and Royal Tan, back then.
On TV, admittedly, the National course still presents a fearsome image and is as popular as ever, commanding a viewership of some 600 million globally.
Ireland’s record is second to none over the past decade and, apart from last year’s winner, Corach Rambler, there’s no reason why that trend should not continue.
Call it a glorified handicap, if you purists will, but it’s still a lottery. Hence: pins out, sweepstake players, for our ever- dependable, alphabetically- ordered shortlist: Capodanno, Chemical Energy, Corach Rambler, Foxy Jacks, Galvin, Limerick Lace, Mahler Mission, Meetingofthewaters, Noble Yeats, Panda Boy, Vanillier.
Ray Rosenstock