The final festival meeting of the summer took place at Listowel in Co. Kerry last week. Constant sunshine and bumper attendances counteracted the seven days of hard ground and small fields.
Betting figures were poor, but this was understandable with so many odds-on shots during the week. One of the only ones to get beaten was Millstreet in a three-runner contest on Wednesday and that caused plenty of controversy.
Johnny Murtagh tried to send Millstreet through a gap on the inner of Mick Kinane aboard Sorcerous, but the door was shut by the time the favourite got into top gear. The stewards held an enquiry into the incident and while they adjudged Kinane to have ridden carelessly (one-day suspension) the result remained unaltered. The Murtagh camp was not pleased and has lodged an appeal.
Kinane was back in hot water on Friday when he again appeared to shut out an opponent. This time it was Tadhg O'Shea that came off worst, but after prolonged discussions in the stewards room the eleven times champion avoided a suspension that would have ruled him out of Arc weekend.
Fairyhouse is one of the tracks that expressed an interest in all-weather racing and we were given a sneak preview of what it may look like at the course last Saturday. Less than a thousand turned up for an eight-race flat card and only twenty-three bookmakers were bothered to take their money.
The TV in the owners and trainers bar was showing an old 'Only Fools And Horses' towards the end of the racing. This just about sums up the day.
On the subject of all-weather, I am led to believe that the cost of lighting the proposed Abbotstown course for a night's racing will be somewhere in the region of ?12,500. That is ?500 more than the SIS carrot.
Punchestown had a torrid week. Five of the track's board, including chairman and vice-chairman, resigned following a proposal from HRI to rescue the course from financial ruin.
The racecourse has built up a huge debt in recent years and HRI has designed a proposal to 'address the perilous financial position' according to Brian Kavanagh. HRI will provide significant funding for Punchestown with a payback date of 2016. Until such time as the debt is repaid HRI and Puchestown will have joint ownership of the course.
Punchestown directors met on Friday to accept the resignations from their board and to co-opt Kildare Hunt Chairman and Vice Chairman, Nyall Spiers and Ronan McParland respectively to the board.
An emergency general meeting of the board is planned for 23rd October when the HRI proposal will be discussed.
Whatever the outcome of that meeting, Punchestown's financial dilemma will not be easily remedied. The track has general running costs of ?3,000 a week, while a further ?7,000 is needed each week to cover the interest on existing debts.
Speaking at Punchestown races on Sunday, Nyall Spiers said: 'It appears that the HRI proposal will provide us with much needed breathing space. All members ofthe Kildare Hunt Club have the best interest of Punchestown at heart.' He went on to say that while they would be reluctant to sell parcels of land for development, he could not rule anything out at this stage.
Racing has had more than its fair share of tragedy in the last month and this week was no exception. 19-year-old apprentice Jonathan Gooney was found dead in his apartment in Kildare on Wednesday morning. The young man with the cheeky smile will be sadly missed by all whom had the pleasure to know him.
The week began with brighter news regarding the plight of Jimmy Mansell. He had made remarkable progress since his horrific fall at Ballinrobe last month. He was out of bed and moving about and his speech had returned.
Turf Club medical officer Dr Walter Halley said at the beginning of the week: 'He has defied medical science because the head injuries he sustained were very serious.'
Unfortunately Jimmy had a setback towards the end of the week and is now back on alife-support machine. Halley explained on Sunday: 'Jimmy has developed a complication related to the ventilation of his lungs, and has been transferred to University Hospital Galway where he is to undergo an operation.'
Gordon Power is the latest rider to sustain serious injury. The apprentice sustained damage to his left eye following a freak accident at Listowel on Friday. A piece of running rail shattered when a horse smashed through it and then whipped back into Power's face, knocking him clean off his mount.
The race planning committee made a major error of judgement when they allocated both Listowel and Punchestown with all-jump fixtures on Sunday. Had the ground turned soft resulting in maximum fields at both tracks I don't think there would have been enough jockeys to go around. No such problem for 2003 when Listowel will clash with the Curragh on the final day of the festival.
