THE organisers of harness racing in the Cork region have a potential new revenue stream – a website that predicts the weather with deadly accuracy.
Two weeks ago a meeting was brought forward by 24 hours to avoid a cloudburst. It worked. Last weekend, the much anticipated Red John Memorial was postponed by 24 hours in hope of better weather.
On Sunday, Mother Nature relented and the day dawned overcast but stayed dry. Landowner Ger Heggarty has some fine sward about the place. There were still three inches of rain from the Saturday in the wheelbarrow at the stables yet the 880-yard track somehow got no worse than ‘yielding to soft’.
The organisers had also the challenge of compliance with the Covid regulations. In short, the paying public was limited to 200 and all attendees had to register their names in advance, which in turn were cross-checked at the gate.
We should acknowledge main sponsor Bill Donovan of the USA, LeTROT of France, various other sponsoring companies and families, the Red John Committee, the IHRA, officials and comperes Tim Kelleher and Michael Dempsey.
The postponement of Saturday meant that the meeting became a 21-race marathon.
Saturday card
(run on Sunday)
GAVIN Murdock, was leading driver at the meeting with three winners. However, Lyre was far from a rout for the Belfast man. Admittedly the two fillies The Gypsy Queen and All Bets Are Off both won their match races and the mare Elski showed electric pace to win the Henk Offereins Pace.
On the other hand, some of Murdock’s big guns did not get through the ground. Ladyford Buck, Springhill Miss Kate and Oakwood Cowboy were all beaten. Not for the first time, rain on a grass track played havoc with the form book.
The McCartan Bet three-year-old trot went to the trotting specialist Sean Kane, but the runners flip-flopped in the ring. Homer Oakwood opened favourite but all the money came for Humble Beginnings (Patrick Kane jnr), supposedly a model of consistency. Humble Beginnings did break to a gallop as did Homer Oakwood. However, that gelding had the speed to recover from his error.
Three divisions of the IHRA juvenile series cut up badly. This section of the card resembled a coursing meeting with three two-horse races in rapid succession. All three threw up talking points.
In the two-year-old colts Bequest (Donal Murphy, 1/3) was never travelling sweetly while Churchview Frankel (Bernard Nicholson) simply knuckled down better.
In the two-year-old fillies, IB Flo Jo deigned to start for Murphy but had no answer to a confident Gavin Murdock on The Gypsy Queen.
Finally, in the three-year-old fillies Bernard Nicholson felt the other side of the slings and arrows when his charge Churchview Niche broke when it looked like she had All Bets Are Off (Gavin Murdock) under pressure.
Gavin trains Oakwood Cowboy for owner/driver Ruairi McNulty. “The Cowboy”, ran well for second but Resolute Diamond (Timmy O’Leary for John Shanahan) got first run in what was a seven-horse race for the three-year-old males.
The ‘big one’ The Red John Memorial was talked up by the harness fans present. With Saturday’s racing cancelled a preview was hastily convened and broadcast on the IHRA pay per view channel.
Mick Dempsey (compère), Dan Carlin (bookmaker and The Irish Field harness correspondent) and John Roche (pundit and brother of Billy) made up the panel. John did not crack under interrogation about the Cloghran runners.
The panel were agreeded in their opinion that heat one was a match between Rhyds Rival and Benny Camden. In a most unusual driver booking, Andrew Joyce called upon John Richardson for Rhyds Rival as trainer Billy was already committed to Pan Am Colt.
Rhyds Rival got thumped in the betting ring, lost his position at the start but still rounded the field at the farmyard last time to win impressively. Arch rival Benny Camden ran second for Donal Murphy.
The other heat saw Lawrence Stewart attain reward for his 350-mile journey from Coleraine when the nine-year-old warrior Master Plan picked up the €2,500 first prize. Patrick Kane jnr was in the bike.
The Maven Trot is named after a champion mare that Mr Donovan owned in America. Heat one went to Buster Gilligan who can do no wrong at the moment. Swords-born Buster scored with Bian Luis Posguen. Empereur Souverain (Patrick Kane jnr) was second.
The second eliminator saw a Tyrone-based victory for Abraham and Simon Duggan. The game mare Aubade A Helene was runner-up for Patrick Hill.
Buster Gilligan made it two on the day when Honor Code took the Drinagh Co-Op Pace. His owners Pa Crawford and Richard Phelan are great sportsmen and greet triumph and disaster in the same way.