HOLD THE BACK PAGE:AS THOSE listening to Joe Duffy's radio show on RTÉ Radio One earlier in the week will be aware, in the aftermath of the shenanigans which went on last weekend in the Smithfield mart, the Irish affinity with horses – an empathy encapsulated in poetry by WB Yeats and in art by Jack Yeats, as his Before The Start in the National Gallery will testify – brings out passion from the strangest of sources.
This love of the horse is something, it seems, which is in our blood without any urban-rural divide.
The leap from the cobblestones of Smithfield and those unfortunate and unsavoury scenes to what goes on at Cheltenham next week might seem to be a strange one to make. But there is something about what the festival – celebrating its 100th birthday – represents that makes it one of the most special sporting occasions in any given year and underpins that special Irish affinity with horses and especially with horse racing.
Cheltenham showcases all that is best about the racing horse and, more often than not, provides a stage to demonstrate how Irish jump jockeys are among the very best in the world.
And, if the numbers from our shores who make the pilgrimage might provide some sort of gauge to the state of Ireland’s economy, the truth is this racing festival more than any other, including the Aintree Grand National, manages to encapsulate the spirit of being Irish and appreciating this so-called “sport of kings”.
On a recent visit to the National Stud in Kildare, our rich equine history was on view; in death, and in life. One of the more imposing features was the skeleton of Arkle – an equine legend and winner of three Cheltenham Gold Cups from 1964-’66 – as you entered the museum, but the more spine-tingling encounter of that day was when Melbourne Cup winner Vintage Crop (1992) – long since put to pasture since his Melbourne Cup conquering days – sidled up to the fence to be patted on his forehead.
Far away from the madding crowds, Vintage Crop’s home in the quiet paddocks of the National Stud is a stark contrast to the euphoria created by his history-making journey to Australia to win the race that stops a nation. The hero worship he subsequently received from race goers was subsequently secured for posterity in the statue in his honour at the Curragh. The real thing is still to be seen at the stud in Kildare and he retains that graceful beauty he once brought to the racetrack.
Although he raced a couple of times over hurdles, the temptation to give Vintage Crop a go at the Champion Hurdle didn’t materialise. And, in the main, it is horses who conquered Cheltenham who have mostly claimed special places in our hearts: from Arkle to L’Escargot, Dawn Run to Istabraq, this home away from home in the Gloucestershire countryside has given Irish sport some of its greatest bloodstock legends and the suspicion is next week will provide yet further names to add to the rich heritage.
It is estimated that over 220,000 spectators will attend the festival, considered the “Olympics” of national hunt racing, and it is worth something like €58 million to the local economy. What Cheltenham has done is to create a festival where one race after another is reached with a great sense of expectancy and the Irish contribution – ever since Vincent O’Brien pioneered taking horses across the water – cannot be overemphasised.
And, this week, another Irish contribution to the festival was made: Mark Boylan, a 13-year-old teenager from Banagher in Co Offaly, released a song appropriately entitled The Festival which is available to download from the Racing Post website with donations suggested to the Injured Jockeys Fund. Apparently, the young songster’s effort has been endorsed – via Twitter – by none other than AP McCoy.
O'Gara sets the tone
THE THORNY subject of why players in high-profile matches – à la Eoghan O’Gara and Marc Ó Sé in the televised Dublin-Kerry National League game – should come in for retrospective video analysis and suspensions has again reared its head.
The anomaly exists that players involved in Division Two, Three or Four games – away from the cameras – could be involved in the same kind of indiscipline but escape censure.
Anyway, O’Gara decided to take his medicine, an eight-week ban that made AC Milan’s Gennaro Gattuso’s four-match suspension for his Glasgow Kiss on Joe Jordan seem like a pardon.
Ó Sé appealed his four-week ban to little avail. It would seem that O’Gara’s acceptance of his own punishment militated against the Kerryman.
Els must go national or international
IMAGINE IF Pádraig Harrington or Graeme McDowell or Rory McIlroy or any of the Irish card-carrying European Tour members was told to make a choice . . . play in the Irish Open or the Ryder Cup!
Well, that’s the situation in which Ernie Els has been placed after the Presidents Cup – the poor imitation of the Ryder Cup which pits the so-called “International” team (without any Europeans) against the United States in a match played biennially in non-Ryder Cup years – and the South African Open were scheduled for the same week: November 17th-20th.
Els, the world ranked number 12, but who is currently the top-ranked player on the “International” team, is considering whether to miss out on the Presidents Cup in favour of his national championship.
Els is not alone: as things stand, four of his fellow South Africans Retief Goosen, Tim Clark, Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel are also in captain Greg Norman’s team for the match at Royal Melbourne.
It seems 52 weeks in the year are not sufficient to cram in all of the tournaments on the various international calendars. Apart from the Presidents Cup and, as of now, the South African Open, the European Tour will also be winging its way towards Malaysia that same week for the Johor Open.
Els may have mastered many feats in his career – which include five South African Opens, including the most recent – but he hasn’t yet worked out the art of bi-location.
Dubious reward for Redknapp?
THE OLD gag about former Man United manager Tommy Docherty was that he had more clubs than Jack Nicklaus.
Spurs manager Harry Redknapp (left) hasn’t quite clocked up as many clubs as the Doc but, with a managerial CV that takes in Bournemouth, West Ham, Portsmouth (twice), Southampton and Tottenham Hotspurs, Old Harry has certainly been around the block a few times.
Redknapp’s current endeavours with Spurs – reaching the quarter-finals of the Champion League – may yet be a stepping stone to even greater things.
Given the journey Spurs have travelled since Redknapp came to their rescue in October 2008, when they were rock bottom in the English Premier League, there’s an increasing likelihood he is playing his way into becoming Fabio Capello’s successor as England manager.
Now, we wouldn’t wish that on such a likeable character. Would we?
Bonds case seeks naked truth
TO SOME, Barry Bonds is the greatest baseball player who ever lived. Better than Babe Ruth, better than Hank Aaron. Better than anyone. His playing records say so: he hit more home runs – 762 – in his career than any other player. Fact.
No one is arguing with his ability to hit the ball. But the former San Francisco Giant – who continued belting home runs into his 40s before retiring in 2007 – has lived with more questions than the Mahon and Moriarty tribunals combined. Mainly, had he taken steroids in allowing his body to create record after record?
On Monday week, March 21st, in a case listed as “US v Bonds, 07-00732”, which will be held in the US District Court, Northern District of California (San Francisco), Bonds will face a perjury trial in which the baseball player faces four counts of lying to a 2003 grand jury and one count of obstruction of justice. He is accused of lying when he said he didn’t knowingly take performance-enhancing drugs given to him by his personal trainer. He was first charged with the offences in 2007.
Prosecutors in the case have called Bonds’ private doctor, his former business partner, his former assistant and other baseball players who took steroids supplied by Bonds’ former trainer, Greg Anderson, to testify that he lied to the grand jury.
Anderson has refused to testify in the case.
One of the more interesting prosecution witnesses is a former Playboy model, Kimberly Bell. A former mistress of the sportsman, Bell will testify about physiological and emotional changes, including “violent mood changes allegedly caused by Bonds’ steroid use”, according to the prosecution.
The prosecution have also managed to block an attempt by Bonds’ lawyers to show jurors nude photographs of Bell in Playboy. Prosecutors asked the trial judge Susan Illston to bar the photos from being used to “inflame the jury’s prejudice against Bell, to portray her as unworthy of belief because of her physical appearance and sexuality”.
Whatever, the Bonds story has all the plots and ingredients of a real life thriller. Expect the court case to be a media circus. Fact.
