PUNCHESTOWN FESTIVAL:A SILLY old volcanic ash plume wasn't going to get in the way of the thousands of racegoers who took ferries, trains, buses and taxis to get to the first day of the Punchestown festival yesterday.
They stood in the parade ring swapping stories of epic journeys that made Homer’s odyssey look like a walk in the park. But it was racing enthusiast Ivor Queally who was the Phileas Fogg of Punchestown.
He set out from Sao Paulo in Brazil on Saturday, ran into a train strike in Toulouse and took taxis, trains and ferries to Dover. There he hitched a lift from a Queally’s meat truck and arrived home on Monday, just in time for Punchestown.
Joseph Keeling of the famous fruit family also had an eventful time. He was on a golfing holiday in Portugal when panic struck last week and their flight home was cancelled. His horse Blueberry Boy was running in yesterday’s handicap hurdle and he was determined to be there.
With five others, he hired a nine-seat vehicle and drove through Portugal, Spain and France to Cherbourg. But Blueberry Boy wasn’t so fast and while he led for a while, it wasn’t to be for the five-time Punchestown winner. Nevertheless, sales of the berries have trebled since the horse took the name . . . “I’m trying to find a good horse to name after strawberry or raspberry but we haven’t found one yet,” he said.
Punchestown’s marketing manager Shona Dreaper said the volcano had stymied the plans of many US-based clients who had been planning to attend. “We had a guy from Pakistan coming with four of his friends. They wanted to go to Ireland to the home of racing and he unfortunately had to cancel, but has assured us because he was treated so nicely that he’s going to come back with a whole gang next year,” she said.
UK visitor numbers were down by 3,000 yesterday, while the overall attendance was 14,177, down 2,147 on last year. “A lot of people are coming by hook or by crook,” said racecourse manager Dick O’Sullivan. “You know racing people. They would go through the eye of a needle to get here.”
The effect of the downturn was evident among the thrifty fashionistas who were selected as finalists in the Best Dressed Lady competition. Three of the 10 finalists had made their own hats and many had bought their outfits, or part of them, in high street shops.
As with the Easter meeting at Fairyhouse, the winner was dressed from top to toe in recessionary black. Eibhilín Ní Ghiolla Buí (27), an Intel software analyst from nearby Sallins, made her own hat and bought the dress, jacket and shoes in LK Bennett.
The dress had seen several race meetings “and my shoes are really old”, she said. Her top tip to people entering in today’s best dressed competition was to dress warmly and she took her own advice by wearing two pairs of tights.
Hat-making clearly runs in the family. Her 10-year-old niece Ella McGarry also made her own hat.
Among yesterday’s racegoers were Charlie McCreevy and his wife Noeleen, former EU commissioner Ray MacSharry, chairman of Sunderland football club Niall Quinn, RTÉ’s Jimmy Magee and designer Peter O’Brien. Daithí Ó Sé was happy to fan rumours that he could be the next Rose of Tralee presenter, following Ray D’Arcy’s retirement from the role, while an injured Ruby Walsh found himself in the unusual position of standing in the winner’s enclosure, instead of riding into it. He was nursing his arm in sling, following a crashing fall in Aintree.
It was like Cheltenham all over again for his sister Katie and her friend Nina Carberry as they battled for supremacy in the first race of the day, the Kildare Hunt Club Fr Seán Breen Memorial Chase. But while Katie was first past the post in the Cotswolds, Nina Carberry got the better of her yesterday and won the race aboard Zest For Life.
Like Katie, the Goat Syndicate’s popular horse Forpadydeplasterer had to settle for second place in the big race of the day, the Boylesports.com Champion Chase. Ruby Walsh’s injury had a silver lining for Paul Townend who stood in for him and won the race on the Willie Mullins-trained Golden Silver.
“He jumped super,” a happy Townend said. “He showed today that he has plenty of class.”