Bookies make hay while the rain pours

Political intrigue, dead fish and red-hot tips from well-placed sources – business as usual, then, at the Galway Races, writes LORNA SIGGINS.

A GOVERNMENT minister refuses to take a “bubble” helicopter to Ballybrit, and is driven there by State car instead. He’s not so interested in the horses – more the form of his constituency rival’s beautiful wife.

Even as the minister arrives in search of the party faithful, a young married couple who are also en route to the festival have their own plans. They’ve agreed that the only way to keep up with the mortgage repayments is for one of them to join the mná na h-oíche – as in women of the night – for Galway race week.

If it sounds a little far-fetched, it may not be far fetched enough. “Sodom and Gomorrah” is film director Robert Quinn’s verdict on Ballybrit. Although reared out the road in Carraroe, his first visit to the races was last year. So seduced was he by the atmosphere that it is on his diary this week.

"I don't think there is anything I didn't see," Quinn says of his "research" for the resulting fictional series, Rásaí na Gaillimhe, which was shot for TG4 and previewed at the recent Galway Film Fleadh.

The series, due to be broadcast in the autumn, takes seven deadly sins as its theme, with one sin per episode. It includes now historic footage of the corporate marquee village, including that political-party tent.

The wetter side of the Ballybrit event was again the challenge yesterday for jockeys, trainers and owners, as heavy overnight rain continued well into the afternoon, transforming the going from soft to heavy.

The big question was whether the horses would make it through Móinín, the infamous boggy dip before the final stretch, and whether wellington boots would be sufficient for the car park, which was transformed into a sea of mud. An inspection before 4pm confirmed that the meet would go ahead.

The advice from the cognoscenti, such as former Fianna Fáil leader Albert Reynolds, who knows his hock from his fetlock, was to “study the form closely” in relation to ground conditions.

“Don’t go by the tips. You’d want to talk to the trainers to be really sure,” Reynolds warned The Irish Times. Minutes earlier, Reynolds held counsel with Charlie Swan, the trainer of Sorry Al, in which the former taoiseach has a share.

“I’m afraid our horse has no chance in the second race. The ground is just too soft. Second last or last,” Reynolds sighed. Certainly, the horse didn’t make the first five. Very, very sorry Al.

Fellow former taoiseach Bertie Ahern was “down for a couple of days”, and was planning to head south to Kerry. He was with Ronan Keating at a function to raise funds for the Marie Keating Foundation. Tables for 10 at €2,500 were “quite cheap for Galway races”, Keating told reporters in the parade ring.

While he was very pleased with the success of the function, Keating wasn’t so impressed with his winnings. “Two massive losses in the first two races,” he said, adding that he would be waiting for Ahern to give him advice. The appropriately named Rock and Roll Kid was Ahern’s tip for reporters in the fourth race, and it came home in first place.

As strong southwesterly gusts drove in the showers, there were periodic retreats to the Tote, and it seemed that more punters were looking at big screens than at the actual track. By 7pm, and the feature race, the Tote Galway Mile European Breeders’ Fund Handicap, the consensus was that it would be a bookmaker’s day.

It was certainly not a helicopter pilot’s day, with low cloud affecting visibility on flights to and from the track. A north Galway resident appealed to pilots to fly higher, for the sake of his valuable exotic fish.

A particularly low-flying helicopter flight on Monday evening had been identified as the prime suspect in the sudden death of three koi in a pond in Turloughmore. The very upset owner said that he believed the fish had died of shock.