It was a good day for the bookmakers and for racing soothsayer JP McManus – but for the punters it was all booby tape, repair kits and feathery fascinators
IF YOU’RE wandering around the racecourse at Ballybrit looking for tips, the best thing that can happen is to bump into JP McManus. The multi-millionaire horse owner knows more than most about backing winners. Spotted just after lunch, he had no tips about what horse to back, but there was one he definitely didn’t fancy: Finger Onthe Pulse in the Galway Plate. “It’s my only horse running today, and he’s only there to make up the numbers at this stage,” he said. In horsey terms, it was like getting a steer from God.
When you’re seen talking to JP, everyone at Galway Races wants to know what he said. His word is golden. He is the oracle. The soothsayer of all things risk-based and equine. “The only bit of advice he has is not to back Finger Onthe Pulse,” this reporter told at least a dozen people, feeling it was only right to share the wisdom of the sage. For that she would like to most sincerely apologise.
The Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, had obviously been warned off Finger Onthe Pulse, too. After deliberating for a while over the firm favourite, Dermot Weld’s Majestic Concorde – Weld continued his winning streak with more wins yesterday – he strode up to bookmaker Tom Kennedy and placed €50 on the nose of Paul Nicholl’s trained Five Dream. Then it was off to the stands to watch the race.
The crowd was down a few hundred on the same day last year, but it’s up several thousand this week so far, and while the champagne marquee wasn’t full, you couldn’t have swung an oyster in the Guinness tent.
Looking queen-beeish in yellow and black and sitting on the steps of the stand before the big race, Galwegian Geraldine Jennings was doing a bit of emergency repair work on the split seam of her sister Trish’s dress. But Geraldine always carries a Galway Races Survival Kit and fixing the hole was no problem.
What is in the kit? "Safety pins, plasters, pain killers, flip flops, booby tape . . ." Apparently the "booby tape" had already saved another of their group who had too much cleavage – the cleavage police have their work cut out for them at Ballybrit – on display. Geraldine likes the Galway Races because they're not Ascot: "It's not 'Okay, ya, Josie and Jonny', it's just a great laugh and I wouldn't miss it for anything." She should go on Dragons' Denwith her Survival Kit; she'd charm any dragon and make a fortune.
The dress repair stopped when the race started. Up in the stands, the Taoiseach could be seen following the action as the crowds urged the horses on. Former taoisigh Bertie Ahern and Albert Reynolds were also seen trying their luck around the course.
Finger Onthe Pulse led from the start, but with JP’s words ringing in our ears, some of us knew this was just a temporary situation and that pretty soon Finger Onthe Pulse would drift to the back of the field. He didn’t.
He stayed at the front holding on in the expert hands of jockey Tony McCoy who had originally been scheduled to ride Dancing Tornado but was switched to JP’s horse at the last minute. And before you could say “JP McManus led me up the garden path”, Finger Onthe Pulse had won the Galway Plate at 22-1.
Hopping mad in the parade ring, we tackled JP, who had a smile on him like a Cheshire Cat who’d just been tickled. “Hope you had your fiver on it,” JP said, in response to our protests. Eh, you said the horse was only there to make up the numbers. “He was – number one,” he laughed, off to congratulate McCoy. JP also told incredulous reporters he didn’t back Finger Onthe Pulse himself.
Meanwhile, the bookmakers were doing a jig all over the course yesterday: when Finger Onthe Pulse won the Galway Plate, they got back much of the punters’ money they had lost the day before.
Voices were hoarse in the parade ring. “I was screaming like a ballooba when he won,” said one of the winning jockey’s entourage. JP’s son Ciaran was there, with his wife Anne-Marie – looking stunning in florals – while Tony McCoy’s wife Chantelle celebrated his win in an off-the-shoulder cream frock.
Today, all eyes will be on the ladies of Ballybrit as they preen for Ireland in the vicinity of the champagne tent under the critical eye of the Best Dressed and Best Hat judges. The showers stayed away yesterday but rain – that deadly enemy of all feathery fascinators – is forecast for Ladies’ Day.
There are rumours that Chris de Burgh could make an appearance with daughter Rosanna Davison, which should please all ladies in red. And there might actually be some horseracing going on, too. But if you meet JP and he tells you something interesting, don’t say you weren’t warned.
