Galway Races brought the summer to life

By JIM CARNEY By JIM CARNEY ANOTHER horse of a week! There may be less money for people to spend on betting when they go racing, even in Galway at the big Summer Festival, but that didn't stop the crowds flocking to Ballybrit all last week. It was announced on Sunday evening that the overall attendance for the week was 147,648 and that was close enough to last year's whopping 150,000 figure to leave everybody involved with Race Week feeling hugely satisfied, while at national level the hard-pressed horse racing authorities were hugely relieved. More than ever, they need the Galway Summer Festival of Racing to keep the industry afloat in bad times. Unlikely that the owners of Plate winner need the money NATIONAL HUNT racing is often praised for the opportunities it presents for 'the small man' to win the big races, and beat off the challenge of wealthy owners, but last week's Galway Plate outcome was a horse of a different colour! Winning owner Mrs Ricci's husband is a Barclays banker and maybe the supreme irony is that his first name is Rich. Yes, 47-year-old Mr Rich Ricci, Chief Executive of Barclays Capital, is one of Willie Mullins's principal patrons. Last year his pay was £44 million â€â€ that's pounds, sterling, not euros, and it was for one year's work. Across-Channel a few months ago the Daily Mirror described Mr Rich Ricci as England's 'No. 1 fatcat banker.' They went on to break down his 2010 earnings: a basic salary of £700,000 from his role at Barclays' investment arm, a £3.35 million long-term incentive award, a £9.9 million bonus and £30 million in shares. It came to light only a few weeks after Barclays promised the Government it would show restraint in pay.Nebraska-born Rich and his English wife Susannah who, sadly, didn't make it to Galway last week, live in an 18th century mansion in Kent. Rich is reportedly enthusiastic while talking about horse racing, but doesn't appear to have much to say about his business life. The only quote I could find is this one: 'Barclays Capital is a great place to work.'Moving on to Thursday of Race Week, the richest jumps race in Ireland, the €260,000 Guinness Galway Handicap Hurdle, was just what the sport needed after Wednesday â€â€ a victory for the 'small men.' Small in their ambitions, anyway: the Glenmore, Kilkenny Three Friers Cross Syndicate only wanted a good day-out and a good run by their horse, the 20-1 outsider Moon Dice, trained by Paul Flynn, said to be Co. Longford's only racehorse trainer. Ridden by Tom Doyle, Moon Dice dashed the hopes of the connections of Fosters Cross, winner of the big amateur handicap on the Monday evening. Not since Athy Spirit landed the two-mile amateur event and followed up in the 1990 Hurdle have the twin features been claimed by the same horse but gallant front-runner Fosters Cross (12-1) was unable to cope with the late surge of Tom Doyle aboard Moon Dice which paid almost 40-1 on the Tote and so delighted the members of the victorious syndicate that they turned the winner's enclosure into one of the biggest afternoon parties ever seen at Ballybrit. The cheering, back-slapping and hugging was so emotional that some members of the syndicate, almost swamped by a huge army of their followers, were crying and close to being overwhelmed by the sheer excitement of a glorious occasion. On the course and on television, the feeling was being turned into the same words: 'This is what Ballybrit is all about.'Also on Thursday, Dermot Weld sent out four victorious favourites to equal his 2010 record tally of eleven winners. Champion jockey Pat Smullen excelled on three Flat winners Rock Critic, Anam Allta and Teach Nua, after amateur Robbie McNamara had started the ball rolling on a very impressive steeplechasing newcomer Daffern Seal in the opening Perfect Pint Beginners Chase.Ladies Day â€â€ with a 42,789 attendance â€â€ was also memorable for small-scale Co Kilkenny trainer Margaret Mullins whose Down In New Orleans (8-1) in the hands of her son Danny (19) emerged best in a gripping finish to the Guinness Summer Series Novice Chase and then stablemate Cairdin became the sixthfavourite to oblige from eight races in the concluding Guinness Storehouse Flat Race, with Danny's cousin Patrick in the saddle.Back to the Wednesday, while the Plate was all the talk of Ballybrit, the Weld stable's odds-on Galileo's Choice won the Tote Pick Six Maiden Hurdle and had their sixth winner in three days when Maunsells Duke got a run as first reserve for the Tote Daily Double Handicap and scored for that gifted pilot Pat Smullen at surprisingly generous odds of 11-2. It was soon seven up: Smullen again, Font Of Wisdom, odds-on.Two evening meetings got the Summer Festival going, as always. On the Monday, Willie Mullins's brother Tom saddled Fosters Cross (10-1) to win the featured carlton.ie/galwaycity Amateur Handicap under Wexford claiming rider Colin Motherway. The first-day attendance was 17,570 and that was very encouraging for the week; it was less than 400 behind last year's Monday crowd (17,961).Fosters Cross had been backed from 14-1 to 10-1 but that was tame compared to the ferocious betting on the preceding Juvenile maiden, won by Dermot Weld's Riviera Poet (2-1) from Ballydoyle's Learn, hammered by punters to odds-on and said to be the 'good thing' of the week. There were several bets of €10,000 and €8,000 at odds-on.Also on the Monday, veteran Dungarvan trainer John Kiely scored a double with 12-1 chance Carlingford Lough (Mark Walsh) in the salthillhotel.com Handicap Hurdle and Saint Gervais (4-1 favourite) in the hands of local star Derek O'Connor in the irelandhotels.com Flat Race.Weld saddled three more winners on the Tuesday evening, all ridden by Pat Smullen including two for owner Dr Ronan Lambe whose Stunning View (7-1) won the big race, the Topaz Mile. An on-course gamble on last year's locally-owned victor Ask Jack, backed into joint favouritism this time with Smullen's mount, went badly astray as Stunning View made amends for his Royal Ascot defeat behind Julienas.Two other Curragh-based trainers, Eddie Harty and Dessie Hughes, also saddled winners on Tuesday in lovely weather and in front of another great attendance: 17,510, only 350 less than a year ago.On Friday evening, Dermot Weld's tally soared to a record-breaking 13 winners but the big race, the Guinness Handicap, went to the North of Ireland as Clare Glen provided Banbridge, Co. Down trainer Sarah Dawson with the biggest win of her career. The five-year-old was sent off a 14-1 shot in the hands of Séamie Heffernan and he landed a grand prize by a head. Sarah Dawson has only nine horses in training and she'll always remember Galway Races 2011 with huge affection.Two Weld winners on Friday: 5-4 favourite Rainforest Magic, a facile winner of the opening Handicap Hurdle under Robert McNamara, and the Pat Smullen-ridden Address Unknown, also at a short price: 5-4 favourite.Tony Martin saddled his first winner of the week when Another Ambition (14-1) came home a facile winner of the Guinness Galway Blazers Handicap Chase, while Noel Meade's Sam Bass (100-30) just prevailed in a three-way photo for the 1m 4f maiden.A 'new' crowd arrived in Galway on this day, in for the holiday weekend, and the attendance at Ballybrit was against trends everywhere: 25,240 people â€â€ 2,186 more than the Friday evening of 2010. Ominously though, with Irish racing â€â€ as a business â€â€ increasingly worried, betting with both the Tote and the bookmakers was down 11 per cent and 7 per cent respectively on last year's figures.On Saturday, three more for Dermot Weld: Rock Critic (10-11 favourite) in the big race of the day, the Ladbrokes â€ËœBiggest Names Best Prices' Handicap, after the odds-on (4-9) Natural High under Robbie McNamara in the opening Jockeys Association Maiden Hurdle and later Hit The Jackpot (7-2) under Pat Smullen, his 12th winning ride of the week. It was almost four for Weld but Ballydoyle denied him in a Nursery race: Blue White Fire failing to catch the all-the-way winner Vault (4-1) trained by Aidan O'Brien and ridden by his son Joseph who reportedly will be switching to National Hunt riding at some stage of his young career.On the same evening, Martin Brassil's 4-1 favourite Double Seven, owned by J.P. McManus and ridden by the in-form Mark Walsh, won the Ladbrokes Handicap Hurdle and Paul Townend switched to the level to pilot Pozyc (4-1) to victory for Willie Mullins in a Handicap.Sunday's main race was the Connacht Tribune Handicap Chase, won by Truckers Delight for the John 'Shark' Hanlon stable at 3-1 favourite, after finishing an unlucky fourth at the track on Tuesday.The curtain came down on the 2011 Summer Festival meeting with yet another Dermot Weld-trained winner, his 17th of the week, the 13-8 favourite Comedic Art ridden by the brilliant young Tuam man Leigh Roche in the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Fillies Maiden.The Easyfix EBF Mares Handicap Hurdle was won by the Tony Mullins-trained Clarach â€â€ what a sensational week this legendary racing family had â€â€ while there was a shock in the Galway Bay fm Beginners Chase when Diarmuid Ryan's 33-1 shot Venture Lazarus held on to mock his abysmal form figures of PPP, achieved in three Point-to-Points.The Martinstown Opportunity Handicap Hurdle went to the Francis Flood-trained Bobby John (13-2), under Declan Bates, and in the Galway Shopping Centre Handicap there was a winning ride for Danny Benson on Joanna Morgan's Independent Girl at 11-1.Dermot Weld had thus smashed his previous best of 11, achieved last year, but he was out of the country on Sunday, along with Pat Smullen, in Germany for Famous Name's unsuccessful attempt to gain an elusive Group One victory. That opened a door of opportunity for 5lb claimer Leigh Roche and he grabbed it with both hands â€â€œ and heels. IT'S NOT ALL sweetness and light, and champagne, for the Galway Races. Writing in the Irish Independent on Monday, Richard Forristal described the Summer Festival like this: 'It was as much a social phenomenon as a racing one â€Â¦ once again the crowds that thronged Ballybrit and Galway town from Monday onwards had to be seen to be believed. The year-on-year drop in attendance was negligible, and the place just hummed. Credit to all concerned for that but from a purely racing perspective it's hard to deny a mild sense of disappointment on a couple of scores. Firstly, there were the betting figures, always the most significant barometer of the health of the game. Excluding yesterday (Sunday), the drop in on-course turnover was over 11pc, with the sharpest daily bookmakers' decline a massive 21pc on Wednesday. People have less money to spend, but that has been the case for a few years now. When you factor in that on-course betting in this country has fallen by 16pc, 23pc and 10pc respectively for the past three years, the continuing trend does not read well. Exploring the reasons for that is ultimately a job for another day, but two thoughts readily come to mind: the flight online, and punter confidence, or lack thereof. Both are contentious issues that are eating away at the greater good of Irish racing.'The second thing that left you feeling a little empty from an industry point of view was the general paucity of competition. That's not, in any way, to take from Dermot Weld's outstanding feats but, you have to ask yourself, where was the opposition? A similar question is prompted by the monopolisation of the domestic Classics by Ballydoyle, and it is no less relevant after the week that was. With 17 winners, Weld averaged 2.4 winners a day, equalling his previous record of 11 as early as Thursday. If Weld and his owners choose to save some horses especially for the meeting and endeavour to have many others peak there, that's their prerogative. But still, maidens in this country are notoriously hard-won events, yet the likes of Font Of Wisdom, Catch The Eye and Comedic Art were winning them at their ease. When Font Of Wisdom scored by five lengths on Wednesday, there was another 18 lengths back to the third horse. That just doesn't happen anywhere else.'Notwithstanding that Ballybrit isn't every trainer's cup of tea, the inevitable conclusion is that many are simply resigned to the fact that Weld is going to rule supreme so they don't bother going. Either that or the horses simply aren't there.'Finally, the great Nina Carberry has one special Race Week memory â€â€ she beat all the boys in the North Galway Hunt Donkey Derby (the second year of its running) at Galway Greyhound Stadium last Thursday night when Galaleo followed up his success in last year's event for his Lydican Wood Syndicate owners and his trainers Johnny and Seán Fahy. Nina got to the finishing line in front of Davy Russell riding Oran Flyer into second, with Ken Whelan third.There was a huge crowd in attendance at the College Road venue and they created an electric atmosphere as some of the top National Hunt jockeys got great tunes out of their mounts. Davy Condon deserves a special mention after his mount, Cha Gatley, lost his chance at the start but got going well to finish not too far off the principals.irishracing.com's reporter Donal Murphy said his only regret about the Donkey Derby was that the Galway city traffic afterwards was a pain in the ass!