“TREPIDATIOUS AND unfit.” As a description of our post-yule austerity-weary nation, it was apt but this was also how one observer summed up the psyche of Dublin GAA player Eoghan O’Gara as he prepared for an unusual contest at the second day of the postponed Leopardstown Christmas festival yesterday.
The “Man v Horse” event was a money-raising ruse for Tracy Piggott’s charity, Playing For Life. Jockey Barry Geraghty rode Brave Inca, the former Cheltenham winner that had been brought out of retirement especially for the occasion.
“He looks like a million dollars, look at the shine on that skin,” said the race commentator who wasn’t talking about a nervous- looking O’Gara.
Nobody held out much hope for the footballer despite the 40-yard start he was given over the furlong distance.
“Feck your two legs, Barry Geraghty’s got a horse outside,” quipped one punter as the race began.
Using a novel strategy, O’Gara appeared to get into his stride only after the horse and Geraghty, who had four victories yesterday if you included this one, had bolted.
“He better not run like that when Dublin are playing in the All Ireland final,” an unimpressed Bertie Ahern said afterwards.
The former taoiseach wasn’t having much luck at the races himself. Flanked by sons-in-law David Keoghan, author Cecelia Ahern’s husband, and Westlife’s Nicky Byrne, who is married to his daughter Georgina, he was enjoying the hospitality laid on by meeting sponsor Paddy Power.
“Ah, the craic is too good. I am not really focusing on the horses,” he said explaining away his losing streak.
He has two new year’s resolutions. One is to run more. “I used to run a lot but I haven’t been able since my leg injury,” he said. The other is to travel more. The “tight” Dáil votes during the year have kept him at home more than he would have liked.
His son-in-law David could have given him a bit of a dig-out on the tips front. He couldn’t seem to stop winning, revealed an envious Nicky Byrne who wasn’t having much luck. Still, the singer was in good spirits, talking about his latest album and musing about whether ex-band mate Brian McFadden might do a Robbie from Take That and come back to the musical fold. “Not fully back in the band . . . but it could be for literally a song or an album, the rest of the lads will probably kill me for saying that,” he said.
Celebrities and politicians were scarce around the course except for John Bruton, Brian Hayes, Fergus Finlay and Michelle Massey, the winner of TV3's The Apprentice, who said she was having "one last blowout" before taking up her job with Bill Cullen's company in January.
The course was busier than it had been the day before, but, with attendance at just over 12,000, it was still 2,500 punters down on the equivalent day last year. Compared to Christmas, the weather was positively balmy with only two stubborn piles of ice showing any sign of the recent freeze.
People wandered around wearing complimentary green Paddy Power racing caps and chewing on hot beef rolls. Aoife Conroy was busy employing the legendary, if not exactly failsafe, “Which horse’s name do I like best?” tactic. Her boyfriend, Army officer Capt Barry Crushell, was indulging her yesterday in the hope that she might bring him luck.
As it turned out, the romantic- sounding Thousand Stars did not shine. “I don’t mind,” said the loyal captain, “she’s my winner all right”.
Nearby, 14 members of the same family were enjoying their first festival together. The tickets were a Christmas present from Rachel Grehan from Killiney, Co Dublin. The gang included her mother, sister and two children, one of whom, Jessie (11), was up €65.
“They keep telling me it’s the best Christmas present ever,” beamed Rachel.
The Leopardstown meeting is a sure sign Christmas is over but The Shepherd owned by the Pet Lamb syndicate lent a nativity feel to proceedings when the horse beat off stiff competition to triumph in the Paddy Power handicap hurdle.
The horse is owned by three very wise men, carpenter Eamonn Reynolds from Leitrim, farmer Marty Cummins from Ballinameen, Co Roscommon, and businessman PJ Clarke from Baltra, Co Sligo.
Eamonn and Marty met PJ at Liverpool airport two years ago when they shared their taxi with him. The men spent three days together at Aintree and a few weeks later, PJ rang to ask them would they like to buy a horse.
“At first we thought he was pulling the wool over our eyes,” Marty deadpanned in the winner’s enclosure. The syndicate was named Pet Lamb because Marty had just been assisting in the birth of a lamb on his farm. And if the nativity metaphor wasn’t laboured enough, victory celebrations were due to continue last night at their digs in the North Star hotel in Dublin.