An historic week for Irish racing began on Monday with the eleventh hour reprieve of Punchestown and ended with the crowning of Mick Kinane as Champion jockey at Leopardstown on Sunday. Sandwiched in between, the Melbourne Cup victory of Media Puzzle made this a week to remember.
Punchestown was on the brink of closure until Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) stepped in with a rescue plan. On Monday night the Kildare Hunt Club members met to vote on the offer from HRI. The outcome was far from certain in the run up to Monday's meeting, as the club needed a two-thirds majority in favour for the HRI proposal to be accepted.
The main stumbling block for members was a stipulation in the HRI offer that insisted upon Punchestown repaying in full the GT Equinus loan (known as the Getty loan). Factions of the Kildare Hunt Club felt that only a portion of the ?3.8m should be repaid.
HRI produced a rabbit out of their hat at Monday's meeting when revealing last minute negotiations with GT Equinus had resulted in a reduced repayment of ?2.15m over four years. Members were appeased and the offer was accepted unanimously.
HRI will have a controlling interest in the future of the Kildare track until 2016, longer if outstanding debts are not repaid by that date. This may seem a harsh price for the Hunt Club members to pay, but in the end it was the only viable outcome.
Tuesday morning's victory of Media Puzzle in the Melbourne Cup hit the headlines in both hemispheres and Dermot Weld is once again the toast of the racing world. To win with Vintage Crop in 1993 was historic; to do it again was heroic.
Following this year's Irish St Leger victory of Vinnie Roe it appeared that The Melbourne Cup might indeed revisit these shores, but only in the darker reaches of Weld's ever thinking brain was Media Puzzle seen as a possible contender.
The gelding had finished third in a handicap on the same Curragh card as Vinnie Roe, but was unlikely to make the Cup line-up withouta win (not enough weight). Time had run out for him or at least that was how it seemed. Weld of course had different ideas. He placed both horses in quarantine in preparation for Australia and once there he used his last throw of the dice to run Media Puzzle in the Geelong Cup.
Not only did Media Puzzle win the Geelong Cup; such was the manner of the victory that he ousted Vinnie Roe from favouritism for the Melbourne showpiece.
Weld is a true master of his craft and deserves time to rest on his laurels, but have no doubt he is already hatching a plan to retain the Melbourne Cup.
The Flat jockey's title race provided nail-biting tension for both protagonists and spectators alike over the final few weeks of the season. Back in early August Johnny Murtagh trailed Mick Kinane by 30 winners, but as their respective stables experienced differing fortunes the pendulum gradually swung. By the end of September Kinane knew he had a fight on his hands. By the end of October Murtagh was favourite and entering the final day's racing of the season they were inseparable.
The expected showdown at Leopardstown did not quite live up to its billing. Kinane won the first two races to virtually seal the title and towards the end of the day added another winner for good measure. One of the first people to congratulate Kinane was Murtagh, and while that is obligatory nowadays, there was a real feeling that both had enjoyed the battle.
This was Kinane's twelfth time to win the title and ironically it may have been the cough in Ballydoyle that won it for him. If Aidan O'Brien's yard had been firing all season he would have ridden abroad more often. In any case he is a worthy Champion regardless of what the Americans might say.
Fresh from the success of the Breeder's Cup, Tote Ireland decided to bet on the two-day National Hunt meeting at Down Royal on Friday and Saturday. The venture was doomed before it began as Naas' Saturday meeting was cancelled on Friday morning. A captive audience of several thousand at Naas was missing and the subsequent turnover for the Tote was embarrassing.
The exercise did however throw up one fascinating result. The exacta pool on the three-runner Chase on Saturday was rolled over. And before you ask, the old adage about the outsider of three did not come into play here, in fact the 4/11favourite beat the 5/2 second favourite. Can you believe the exacta pool wasn't won even if the total bet was only ?22?
