It was an unusually busy year for the folks down at Fairyhouse with huge numbers of punters turning up for the Jameson Irish Grand National on Easter Monday. Of course the eventual winner, Bobbyjo, was a huge local favourite, trained by Tom Carberry (whose wife Pamela is the sister of Arthur Moore and daughter of Dan Moore, both renowned trainers) and ridden by his son, Paul Carberry. The celebrations at Ryans pub in Ratoath carried on long into the night.
The other winners on the day were Sharon Mathews and Patrick O'Connell, who despite the fact they'd never set eyes on each other before, were judged the best dressed couple in the Blind Date fashion competition, and Gary Curran, who won a barrel of whiskey (and presumably a whole lot of new friends) in the Early Bird competition.
The main hosts of the day were Richard Burrows, chairman of Irish Distillers and his wife Sherril, who entertained An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern (who was greeted with a well-deserved standing ovation), the Gardai Chief Commissioner Pat Byrne and his wife Dolores; a whole clatter of politicians including John Bruton, G.V. Wright, Michael Woods and Ivan Yates; newsreader Anne Byrne; Terry McCoy, head of the Restaurants Association of Ireland, and Sean Russell of the Slieve Russell Hotel.
Up in the private boxes there seemed to be a lot of English trainers, many of whom were attending the Irish Grand National for the first time. Among them were Henrietta Knight, David "The Duke" Nichol- son, Kim Bailey and Dai Williams (two recent Irish National converts), and Terry Biddlecombe.