An Irish racing story worth a gamble

BOOK OF THE DAY: In the Blood – Irish racing dynastiesBy Anne Holland O'Brien Press 192pp €24.99

EMMELINE Hill knows a lot about genetics. Her research into our DNA earned her an award from Science Foundation Ireland. These days she’s focusing on how genes contribute to muscle development and performance in racehorses, work that ultimately contributes to our understanding of human muscle strength as well as obesity and diabetes.

It’s an appropriate field for lots of reasons, not least the scientist’s own genetic make up. Hill’s grandmother was Charmian Hill, the “galloping granny” who owned, and sometimes rode Dawn Run, the race mare who – in 1984 and 1986 respectively – became the only horse to capture the Cheltenham Champion Hurdle and Gold Cup.

The Hill family is one of many that features in Anne Holland's latest book, In the Blood – Irish Racing Dynasties, a study of how human DNA seems to loom large in the sport in this country. Many of those at the top of the game, trainers, jockeys, even bookies, are following the well-trodden footsteps of parents and grandparents.

The book kicks off by detailing how the families of Tommy Carberry, the only man to have both ridden and trained a Grand National winner, are linked to that of Arthur Moore.

Carberry rode L’Escargot to capture two Cheltenham Gold Cups and a Grand National – where he beat Red Rum – for Arthur’s father, Dan Moore.

Connections and interconnections run through the book. The best example is the Mullins family, presided over by its patriarch, Paddy Mullins, Dawn Run’s trainer, who only retired in 2005, aged 87. His son Willie succeeded him as Ireland’s leading national hunt trainer.

His brothers Tony and Tom, are also successful trainers, while three of the next generation, Patrick, Emmet and Danny, have already made a big impact as riders. The three jockeys are the fourth generation in racing, and it would really take a book to do justice to the family’s achievements, a fact that Holland acknowledges holds true for most of her subjects.

Given this wealth of material, it’s disappointing that Holland relies on a 24-year-old interview with Paddy Mullins for part of the Mullins chapter. The fact that he was born in 1919 and inherited the training licence from his father must give him a unique perspective on how the sport has changed and developed. Surely a contemporary interview would have been better?

This contrasts with most chapters, which have lots of new material and first-hand accounts. The chapter on the Walshes, racing presenter and trainer Ted, his son Ruby and daughter Kate, runs from their roots in Kildorrery in Cork through their journey to the US, where one branch is based, and back to Similarly, the chapter on the Hartys, who have made a big impact on racing both here and in the US, is well worth a read.

Of necessity, much of the book is focused on jumps racing, but the flat gets some of the limelight, including Dermot Weld, and in particular John Oxx – trainer of Sea the Stars, who sealed his reputation as an all-time great at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris in October.

Holland does not limit herself to horsemen and women, and includes racing journalists, the O’Hehirs. One notable inclusion in this group is the Graham bookmaking family, because bookies are supposed to have genes too – although you mightn’t want to take their odds on that.

Barry O’Halloran is an Irish Times journalist