Roaring Lion and Saxon Warrior go toe-to-toe at Leopardstown© Photo Healy Racing
Some of you come here for bile and begrudgery so straight off the bat let's simply say all that 'Irish Champions Weekend' action was brilliant. A superb Champions Stakes finish between Roaring Lion and Saxon Warrior was elite racing at its most exciting. Alpha Centauri's defeat and subsequent retirement reflected the emotional sweep of this game. There were a range of winners to make any monopolies accusation seem redundant. Even the weather played ball. This was racing at its best.
If it didn't float your boat it's safe to say you're better off sailing in a different sporting sea. The frustration remains how such excellence like this fails to divert many from paddling in other sporting waters despite 'ICW' being specifically designed to increase Irish flat racing's profile.
Saturday's official attendance of 14,226 at Leopardstown was the second highest in the five years of the 'Champions Weekend' concept. That's just behind 2016's tally of 14,550. But neither have come close to putting any 'full' signs on the gates.
The redevelopment - and the management's disinclination to reveal attendances - means talking Curragh crowds is pointless. But it would be interesting to look at viewership figures for RTE's mainstream coverage of the two days to see what they reveal about racing's fan-base.
Because there is obviously a base there. And after five years of 'Champions Weekend' it's starting to look straightforward as to how much of that base is prepared to get up and go to the races to watch first-hand what the very best the sport has to offer.
So rather than bemoan who don't go it's probably time to appreciate those who do. Because the reality is that if you don't 'get' a finish like the Champion Stakes, or a story like Skitter Scatter's, or Havana Grey breaking a minute for the Flying Five, then there's very little else racing can throw at you to get your attention. You either get it or you don't.
Unfortunately the injury fates threw plenty at Alpha Centauri and Saxon Warrior who both had to be retired after sustaining leg injuries in their races on Saturday. It was yet more sad evidence of the stresses top-flight flat horses have to deal with in order to achieve their top-flight credentials.
But perhaps the most pointed outcome of 'ICW' - and one most likely to boost the concept's long-term health - was that Aidan O'Brien had to wait until the last of the six top-flight prizes in order to win one.
This is the world's most powerful trainer playing on home ground and he had to rely on Flag Of Honour in the Leger to hit the Group One mark. Instead it was Karl Burke recording a Group One double, and local trainer Patrick Prendergast winning a first ever Group One with Skitter Scatter that stole the show.
It's a stretch to paint the connections of these horses in any sort of everyman context. But it's as big a stretch right now to picture the supposedly more egalitarian jumps game producing top class outcomes comparable to Skitter Scatter's Moyglare or Romanised's Irish 2,000 Guineas this season.
There won't be racing again at the Curragh until the completed new development reopens on April 13 of next year. That will be the first of 19 fixtures in 2019 with a substantial reshuffle of the Curragh's fixtures planned to coincide with its brave new world.
Inevitably much of the interest in last week's fixture list announcement revolved around the Curragh and especially its new concentration of focus on Friday as a racing date.
All four August meetings, including the Group One Phoenix Stakes, will be on Friday. Arrangements have to be finalised but it looks like the Tattersalls Gold Cup will be the Group One highlight on a Friday of a three day Guineas festival in May. And the Pretty Polly Stakes is likely to be the feature of a Friday twilight card over the three day Derby festival.
That the Derby is now the climax of its own festival makes obvious sense in terms of a racing narrative. It's an acknowledgement that only makes more glaring this continuing reluctance to switch around the Leopardstown and Curragh dates on 'Irish Champions Weekend.'
A concentration on Fridays, especially through August, could be a worthwhile experiment. It is clearly an attempt to emulate Leopardstown's Thursday night summer dates which feature post-race concerts. As such there will be an 'entertainment theme' to the August dates in particular. Whether they work or not in terms of crowd numbers will be interesting.
More than a few have pointed out how unappealing a prospect it is navigating the Naas Road on a rush-hour Friday evening. But there's a presumption that hordes of Dublin based fans will baulk at going to the Curragh because of that. There's ample evidence over the years to suggest that no such hordes have ever contributed significantly to traffic congestion on the M7.
Instead there's plenty evidence of the Curragh's failure to engage its more immediate hinterland. It can be argued that failure to address that rather than any supposed metropolitan market 35 miles up the road has been the real problem in relation to the Curragh's sad record of paltry attendances. That's something that needs to be addressed in the long-term interests of the new facility.
If there's a chance Friday evenings help attract a new local audience to go racing at the Curragh then that's something worth following up. Placing Group One races on Fridays mightn't have a direct link to such an audience but it's hard to see what will be lost in profile terms by the Tattersalls, the Pretty Polly and the Phoenix switching to a Friday.
Cramming them into already busy summer sporting weekends risks being swamped by other sports in terms of coverage. Doubt that and examine how Ireland's biggest selling Sunday newspaper didn't have a single word on Saturday's 'ICW' action at Leopardstown in its sports section. That was for a second year running too, which is some 'morkoting' triumph however you look at it.
During the 1970's classics were run at the Curragh during the week. The trend changed towards weekends, just as the habit of weekly features has morphed into a mania for concentrating everything into single 'events.' Trends change. It might even be argued that separating the Tattersalls Gold Cup and the Irish 1,000 Guineas is a sign of a counter-swing back!
Finally there is an appeal pending on the outcome of last week's Lartigue Hurdle where the first past the post, Kuiper Belt, was thrown out in favour of Gold Seal after an incident near the second last flight.
Given only a short head separated the pair at the line there can be no certainty about the ultimate outcome given how that the nature of the appeal system is open to one party achieving head-turning heights of eloquence.
The incident does provoke valid questions as to how far from the line an incident can take place in a jumps race before being taken into account in an enquiry. But whatever the outcome it was encouraging on the day to see the Listowel stewards not take the easy way out on what must have been a difficult call.
Kuiper Belt was a 5-1 favourite. Gold Seal was more than double those odds. The popular route must have been tempting. It's to the stewards credit they resisted such temptation. But it's still interesting to ponder if this case will have others trying their luck in future about incidents occurring even further from the finish than the second last obstacle.
