Review TRAMORE 1-JAN-2000

Tramore in county Waterford brought racing into the 21st century yesterday when they hosted a thrilling action-packed programme before a bumper crowd of 10,000.

A lot has happened at the seaside venue since racing began there back in 1785 and the honour of landing the first race of the new millennium, the Mean Fiddler Handicap Chase, went to market leader No Problem under a confident ride from local rider, Shay Barry.

Trained in Berrings, county Cork by Gerry Cully, the 5/1 shot arrived to head light-weight All But over the penultimate fence before he forged away on the testing ground to land the spoils by three lengths.

'A friend of mine rang me on Christmas Day and I told him that on the day you bury me, you'll be able to say I trained the first winner of the century. I was pretty confident ,' said Cully, who also revealed, 'I helped myself to some of the 8/1 available beforehand.'

For winning rider Shay Barry, Tramore has always been a lucky place: ' Arch Duchess, trained by Paddy Mullins, was my first winner here on the flat back in 1990 and it's nice to get the New Year off to a winning start.'

Henry de Bromhead will also have fond memories of this meeting. The twenty-seven-year-old, who started his career as pupil assistant to Robert Alner before spending two years with Sir Mark Prescott and more recently a stint in the sales department at Coolmore Stud, saddled his first success since taking over his father Harry's training licence, compliments of Fidalus (Paul Moloney) in the T.J. Carroll Chase.

Racecourse director Willie Mullins found the winners enclosure after the 2m4f beginners chase when Mill Lane Lady and Paul Carberry shrugged off the challenge of warm favourite Royal Marine on the short run-in.

Later, bookmakers enjoyed another result in the 2m maiden hurdle when Philip Carberry, younger brother of Grand National winning rider Paul, opened his account for the New Year aboard Tom Bergin's 16/1 shot Bill Bishop.

Last months Thurles scorer Why Bother followed up for Charlie Swan and Stephen Ryan when justifying favouritism in the Kent Brothers Handicap Hurdle before Paul Nolan's 10/1 shot Peggybarry and John Cullen stayed on under pressure to win the finale by eight lengths.

River Shamrock slipped up three furlongs from home when giving chase to the eventual winner, resulting in rider Kevin O'Ryan suffering a broken right-collarbone.

Brian Fleming

Irish Racig Services