'Holly and ivy' punters have their best day for years

Sleet and snow were non-runners at Leopardstown yesterday.Biting wind, a regular feature at the Christmas race meeting, also failed to appear. Even the rain, which was strongly fancied beforehand and did at least make it as far as the track, never really got going and soon faded out of contention.

By the midway stage of the St Stephen's Day programme, newspaper colour writers were scratching their heads in bewilderment as the normally reliable seasonal weather metaphor pulled up lame. To say it was mild for the opening of Leopardstown's December meeting would be unduly harsh. An extra four degrees Celsius and a Fianna Fail tent, and you could have been at the Galway Races.

Customers who lined up at the "Hot Irish Whiskey Bar" did so more out of a sense of Yuletide decorum than any need to warm themselves. Even in the betting ring, conditions were unusually benign. The once-a-year "Holly and Ivy" punters usually discover the hard way that this is the season for giving, but on a day when four favourites won, there was plenty of taking, too.

Maybe a few naïve investors were tempted by a horse called Dow Jones in the second race. This would have been a bad move, because the Dow lost heavily in early trading and failed to recover before close of business. Meanwhile, at the front of the race, the more humbly named 2/1 favourite, Mullacash, was confirming the wisdom of those who had steered clear of stocks and shares.

This set the scene for a series of winning favourites, culminating with Rheindross in the sixth: the giveaway clue here for seasonal punters being the jockey, a man called "B.M. Cash".

In between, rising star Le Coudray justified hot favouritism by hanging on to win the big one, the Denny Gold Medal chase, at a price skinnier than a burnt rasher. His owner, J.P.McManus, was among the many at Leopardstown cheering it home.

Mild weather or not, the attendance was slightly down on last year, at 16,131. But it still bet an impressive €487,750 with the Tote and €1,390,279 with the bookmakers, whose best result was a 10/1 upset in the first race.

The Christmas meeting continues this afternoon, subject to a 7 a.m. track inspection. The inspection is being held in the light of the "adverse weather" forecast overnight. Met Eireann is tipping heavy and persistent rain (nap) throughout the day, and apparently you can put your house on it.