Saturday's Dewhurst at Newmarket produced an extraordinary finish with three Aidan O'Brien trained runners passing the post virtually in line.
For once Michael Kinane chose right and his mount Rock Of Gibraltar got the verdict by the narrowest of margins, but it seems that most punters were on the second and third, Landseer and Tendulkar.
At Tipperary, the same afternoon, the local gossip had Landseer on a par with Rock Of Gibraltar and Tendulkar working very well and suited by the testing ground.
This was Aidan O'Brien's 19th Group1 success of the season and if that seems amazing, it was only 24 hours later that he notched up number 20 when Sholokhov landed the Gran Criterium at San Siro in Milan.
Two of the stars of the jumping game returned to action this week, but neither was straight enough to win on its seasonal debut.
Limestone Lad had his first ever race on the flat when he contested a two-mile maiden at Navan. As usual he set the pace, but having come underpressure early in the straight he could only manage to finish third. The winner, Glens Music, is rated over 40LBs inferior to Limestone lad over hurdles and this illustrates how far short of peak fitness he must have been.
Sackville, a revelation over fences last season, made a more orthodox return by tackling a conditions chase at Punchestown. The trip was well short of his optimum, but on soft ground and with only three opponents it seemed the easier assignment of the pair. In the contest itself Sackville was settled in second, but after a couple of sketchy jumps in the early stages he found himself last of the quartet as the tempo quickened with three fences to jump. From that stage it was always likely that he would struggle to reel in the leader, but it was nonetheless a disappointing comeback run from Ireland's main Cheltenham Gold Cup hope.
Leading apprentices Pat Cosgrave and Catherine Gannon were involved in a car accident returning home from Punchestown on Thursday.As they were about to turn off the main road through Kildare town a truck shunted their car from behind. Both suffered only minor injuries and will resume race riding next week, but the car was a write-off.
Champion jockey Pat Smullen has led virtually from the start in his bid to retain the title, but this week has seen the emergence of Michael Kinane as a serious threat. At the beginning of the week the standings were: Smullen 74, Murtagh 72 and Kinane 69. Following a treble at Navan and another winner at Punchestown Kinane had closed the gap to two, but with himself and Murtagh in Newmarket on Saturday Smullen notched up another win at Tipperary. Kinane was also on a foreign assignment on Sunday while his rivals competed at Naas where they both drew blanks.
At the end of the week Smullen maintains his slender advantage of two to lead with 76 wins, Kinane has 74 and Murtagh now trails the pair with a static 72. The championship battle continues until the conclusion of the flatseason at Leopardstown on November 11th.
Francis Flood is well known as a jumps trainer, but Newhall has certainly brought his name to fore in the flat ranks recently. The filly has become a thorn in the side of flat handicapper, Gary O'Gorman, since she won off a mark of 32 at Down Royal on 28th July. Two more victories at Roscommon and Sligo saw her rating shoot up to 70 and there was cause for the handicapper to feel he had her in his grip following a moderate effort at the Curragh. Then came Punchestown on Thursday. Newhall never came off the bridle to beat 17 rivals and for Mr. O'Gorman it was a case of deja vu. It looks like he is back to square one.What does he do now? He has already upped the filly by a whopping 38LB.
The answer is another stone to a mark of 84. Will this be enough to stop her winning again? I wouldn't bet on it.
The Navan racecourse management came in for plenty of stick on Wednesday. There were two main bones of contention, the first was thelong running saga of the 'judge's box' and the other was the lack of stables. The judge took seven minutes to determine the result of the opening race because he was forced to use outdated equipment in antiquated surroundings. Seemingly the Turf Club has requested Navan to implement improvements to the judge's position for many years, but up to now their urgings have fallen on deaf ears.
The stable-yard problem gained prominence after Christy Roche failed to attain a box to saddle his only runner of the afternoon and brought the matter to the attention of the stewards. All trainers with runners at a meeting are entitled to have at least one box allocated to them, but with large fields all day at Navan this did not happen.
In recent years the Navan executive have made giant strides to improve the facilities for their customers and have been rewarded with increased attendances. During this period of change there has been a noticeable lack of effort or willingness to tackle the aged infrastructure at the track and a rift is growing between the course's management and those who have to work from it. The situation needs to be rectified as soon as possible.
We are constantly told that stable lads and lasses are the backbone of the racing industry and that they are grossly underpayed. No one has been more vocal in support of their cause than their association leader Dan Kirwan. Unfortunately to make ends meet he has had to turn his back on his first love and is now employed as a salesperson in a leading retail outlet in Newbridge Co. Kildare.
He assures me that this is only a short-term measure and that he will meet his commitments as the industry representative on the Horseracing Ireland board.
