Pleascach © Photo Healy Racing
Wrapping the green flag around an Irish-winner tally is more of a Cheltenham indulgence but it would be no surprise to see the history books rewritten come Saturday evening given the strength of this year's Royal Ascot raiding party. There have been a record eight Irish trained Royal Ascot winners in each of the last three years, matching the 2008 tally: what are the odds about that being broken this week, maybe even by hitting the 'Big 10.'
Except bookmakers don't offer odds on Ireland's Royal Ascot tally: it's a notable omission considering the run-in to Cheltenham contains plenty focus on how many Irish trained winners there might be, the whole GB V Ire thing for the Prestbury Cup. With runners from around the globe that isn't something that Ascot can replicate but there's no apparent desire to go all flag-wavey anyway which is a blessed relief since it only recognises the reality.
Sticking a supposed team formula onto something as fundamentally individualistic as racing always strikes a bum note. It grates at Cheltenham and it would be ridiculous at Ascot. Racing is essentially about one horse and one jockey. The idea of team, especially team tactics, are even against the rules, as Ballydoyle memorably found out in that notorious Champion Stakes at Newmarket in 2008.
Only when punters are heard roaring 'Come On Ireland' during a close finish will the flag waving carry substance and don't expect that any time soon.
However should Irish trained winners reach double-figures this week it will be a landmark moment: hardly one to send the country as a whole into patriotic fervour but still a notable landmark for the racing industry here. No doubt it would get plugged for everything it's worth marketing-wise and that's fair enough because the substance behind such an accomplishment is worth bellowing about, at least as much as the record tally of 14 at Cheltenham in 2013.
The context is competition. Cheltenham is a comparatively local affair. Ascot attracts the world. It is also stinking rich. No one pretends Cheltenham is the preserve of the local syndicate anymore, if it ever was, but the resources required to compete on the flat are in a different stratosphere. Yes the passion it generates isn't in the same league as the jump game but a lack of tabloid yahooery can't detract from Ascot's overall significance.
Even a cursory glance at the entries this week reveals a lengthy list of prime Irish trained hopes, from Free Eagle taking on California Chrome in the Prince Of Wales, to Found and Lucida in the Coronation, and Gleneagles in the St James's Palace, Forgotten Rules if he gets suitable ground in the Gold Cup, not to mention Sole Power and Anthem Alexander in the sprints: and that's just the Group 1 action. Round Two will be a juvenile banker for many while there's always something lurking in the handicaps.
Once again there's a diversity to the raiding party in terms of trainers that is encouraging, not like 2008 when Ballydoyle supplied half a dozen. So there must be sound reasons for optimism that a landmark Ascot is possible forty years after one of the most remarkable achievements ever seen at the famous track. In 1975 Vincent O'Brien sent seven runners and six of them won: proof that bare statistics can sometimes calibrate outstanding achievement.
In the longer term, perhaps the most significant Ascot runner will be the 1,000 Guineas heroine Pleascach in the Ribblesdale. Now running for Godolphin, dropping a classic winner immediately back to Group 2 level is a typically different way of doing things by Jim Bolger although it's hard not to wonder if the Curragh authorities wish he simply sent her straight to the Irish Derby in a couple of weeks.
It increasingly looks like Pleascach may be the vital 'USP' for the 150th Curragh classic, the comparative novelty of a filly taking on the colts bringing a frisson of anticipation that otherwise is hard to see Jack Hobbs, admirable though he clearly is, managing to bring.
A few weeks have passed now since the contributor 'jlynam313' proposed the installation of weigh-machines on Irish racecourses in order to calculate the weight of horses before they run. This would provide a statistical record to aid punters and, crucially, also provide stewards with a log to aid them in establishing potential links between performance and race-fitness.
As a practical, doable and affordable idea to help Irish racing's policing credibility, it was a notably constructive contribution, and the response has to all intents and purposes been non-existent, apart from one off the record trainer who volunteered that unless all tracks pony up, we would witness noticeably large maiden fields at those courses unwilling or unable to install one. And that basically says it all.
While the courage of jockeys, and jump jockeys in particular, is renowned sometimes it can still be astounding and that is certainly the case in relation to Brian Toomey's upcoming return to action after coming so close to losing his life just a couple of years ago.
Quite rightly, public reaction has been uniformly positive although there's no getting away from some private murmurs that the young Limerick man might be tempting fate in returning to such a dangerous occupation after coming so close to death, a reflex borne out of concern that Toomey may get hurt again.
And he will. That's what happens to jump jockeys. And the fact that no one will have pondered that more than Toomey only testifies to the mental resolve he possesses. Logically there's no reason why he shouldn't return. He has passed all the tests required for a licence. The authorities are satisfied, so is the man himself, and really it's only hopelessly illogical superstition that provokes any unease. Nevertheless, more than a few will find it hard to be logical come the day.
