HE HAS, on occasion, been called the other end of a horse, but for the big Race Week at Galway, Conor Lynch is living inside a horse’s head.
Far from being an equine psychiatrist, Conor is a 20-year-old student, earning a crust donning the horse’s head as a promotion for the Tote and popping up just about anywhere on the racecourse, to the great amusement of punters.
But five days into the week-long marathon and with some awful weather behind him, isn’t the gloss of the job wearing a bit thin? “Not a bit of it. I love the craic with the racegoers,” he insisted as Ballybrit endured another of those not so friendly downpours.
Conor got the gig from Pelican Promotions of Dundalk and wears the red colours of the Tote in his never-ending tour of the enclosures. “The best bit is running up the escalators. I tried to get Ruby Walsh to jump up on my back the other day, but he couldn’t take the ride as he was already committed to another horse.”
He is one of almost 300 workers employed by the Tote this week. Almost all of the others were located behind the betting windows, happily taking punters’ hard-earned cash. By the end of the week, they will have handled just over €4.5 million. The bookmakers will have handled more than twice that amount by the time the 52nd race of the week has been run on Sunday afternoon.
“It’s always a great week at Galway. Even though the weather hasn’t been great and the recession is inevitably having an effect, Galway is still our biggest meeting by far,” said Peter Killeen, operations manager with the Tote.
Killeen was quick to acknowledge the work of the Race Committee and staff at Galway who had succeeded in providing facilities that could cope with any eventuality, including the unrelenting downpours that fell on racegoers throughout the evening. Almost 400 of them had gathered in the hospitality suites of the Millennium Stand by mid-afternoon to support local charity, Croí. Otherwise known as the West of Ireland Cardiology and Stroke Foundation, Croí will open a state-of-the-art facility for heart and stroke patients in the city later this year.
“For €115 our supporters have been enjoying a great evening’s racing and we have wined and dined them and hopefully provided them with a few winners as well,” said Croí chief executive Neil Johnson.
It has been a lean week and a lean few years for local trainers at Galway, but the drought ended in the opening Guinness Handicap Hurdle when Muzak came home in front, thanks to a forceful ride from Katie Walsh.
The horse is trained by Oranmore-based handler John Monroe, who ran his operation for many years out of the back of a pub at Dominick St, close to Galway city centre. He exercised his horses on the beach at Grattan Road and moved to Oranmore only in recent years.
“I haven’t had a winner at Galway in 10 or maybe 15 years, but we’ll enjoy this one,” he said as he collected the winner’s trophy with son Brian, daughter-in-law Lorraine and their family.