1981

WEDNESDAY’S attendance at Leopardstown established a new record figure for an ordinary midweek fixture, and the jackpot pool of £39,929, seeded by a £6,000 carryover, was more than £3,500 above the previous record.

That record was also set on this course on St Stephen’s Day, 1979. Whereas normally classic aspirants on the flat tend to avoid each other, top National Hunt horses are likely to clash in very ordinary events.

This was the case here as Cheltenham Gold Cup favourite, Jack Of Trumps, took on another Cheltenham prospect, Anaglogs Daughter, in the Foxrock Cup Handicap Chase. Oddly enough, neither started favourite, that spot being reserved for Old Society.

Even with a claim in use, Anaglogs Daughter was only in receipt of 2lbs from her much bigger rival [Jack Of Trumps], who had finished a long way in front of her on their last meeting, which was over this course and distance.

Young Martin Mulligan allowed Anaglogs Daughter her head in the first half mile, and she raced into a clear lead. In the straight it was Jack Of Trumps who cracked, and Anaglogs Daughter sauntered away to beat Luska and Jack Of Trumps by three lengths and six lengths.

Another star appeared on the Cheltenham firmament in the shape of Hartstown in the Hillcrest Hurdle. The six-year-old was going nowhere in the back straight, and looked to be under a lot of urging when taking closer order after the third last jump.

Niall Madden then switched him outside and, almost immediately, the horse accelerated like a high-powered car, and, though led into the straight by two others, was in total command within a matter of strides. The six lengths and four lengths verdict over Prominent Artist and Corrib Ranger was not a true reflection of his superiority.

[Bill Durkan’s Anaglogs Daughter went to Cheltenham where she was one of seven runners in the Queen Mother Champion Chase, all but one of them trained in Ireland. She was beaten, at level weights, seven lengths by the Arthur Moore-trained Drumgora.

Luska, trained by Paddy Mullins was pulled up at Cheltenham in the Sun Alliance Chase, but returned to winning form back in Ireland and, 10 days apart, won the Irish Distillers Grand National at Fairyhouse and the Guinness Handicap Chase at Punchestown.

Jack Of Trumps was last of the six finishers in the Gold Cup behind Little Owl, Night Nurse and Silver Buck. He broke his leg on his next start at Liverpool.

Hartstown’s next start was in the Waterford Crystal Supreme Novices Hurdle which he won from Fifty Dollars More (John Francome) and The Tsarevich (Steve Smith-Eccles)]

Dawn Run on the cusp of racing greatness

1986

THURSDAY morning could not have illustrated more fully the contrasting fortunes in National Hunt racing.

At 9.30am it was all smiles in the Dawn Run camp after she had impressed in her final Gold Cup school in Punchestown, while over at Lambourn it was nothing but gloom as Jenny Pitman had to scratch ante-post favourite Burrough Hill Lad for the second year in succession.

Jonjo O’Neill flew over from Cumbria the day before to partner Dawn Run, and was joined in the school by the typically cheerful Tony Mullins on stable companion Lantern Lodge. They completed a circuit of the track, jumping the final fence twice.

Jonjo reported to owner Charmian Hill that the mare stood off the first regulation and then, apparently realising she might have been over flamboyant, happily popped over the next. It has to be emphasised that this was only a training school, but there was no concealing the rider’s enthusiasm.

What bad luck for the Burrough Hill Lad connections. There was some heat in the horse’s leg on Wednesday night, and it was decided to withdraw him the following morning rather than risk permanent lameness. He now goes for a long rest.

Naturally enough, Dawn Run has been promoted to favourite for the Gold Cup at 2/1 – a poor price for anyone who feels that her jumping is still questionable. She is on the verge of becoming a superstar.

Victory on Thursday will mean she creates a new record for National Hunt racing with earnings over the £250,000 mark, and become the first horse to win both the Champion Hurdle and the Gold Cup.

One unsavoury aspect of her rise to fame has been the incessant barrage from the press about the choice of jockey. Charmian Hill has a lifetime of experience with horses, and for hacks, many who should know better, to write that she was persuaded by the outcry in the British press to replace Tony Mullins with Jonjo O’Neill is complete rubbish.

Amateur rider and television commentator Ted Walsh summed it up neatly the other day: “It’s not who rides her that is important. It’s whether or not she wins.”

[On March 13th, Dawn Run beat Wayward Lad to collect the £54,900 first prize in the Gold Cup and make history. She fell at the first when odds-on favourite for the Whitbread Gold Label Cup in Aintree, before being reunited with Tony Mullins to win the £25,000 to the winner match at Punchestown, beating Buck House at level weights.

The £25,000 was contributed by the Racing Board (£10,000) and £5,000 each from Seamus Purcell, the owner of Buck House, Coolmore Stud and Punchestown Racecourse.

Dawn Run’s final two starts were at Auteuil in France, finishing second in the Prix La Barka Hurdle and falling in the French Champion Hurdle, a fall she did not survive]

Singing all the way to the races

2011

MARK Boylan, a 13-year-old racing fanatic from Banagher, Co Offaly, has written a song about the Cheltenham Festival, and the video of him performing it has attracted a lot of interest on YouTube and Facebook.

The first year student only finished writing The Festival last Thursday week, and recorded a video of himself the following day. The video was posted on The Irish Field’s Facebook page later that evening and attracted dozens of comments overnight.

Before the weekend was over, Mark had been signed up by Channel 4 to perform the song on The Morning Line during Cheltenham. This was fantastic news for Mark, but also déjà vu as he was a guest at Cheltenham last year in very similar circumstances.

Mark explained: “Last year a lot of racing personalities joined together and recorded a song for Cheltenham. When I heard the song I picked up my guitar to see if I could figure out the chords. I recorded myself playing the song and uploaded my version on YouTube.

“Within a week the producer of the single [Richard Gurney] saw the song and generously paid for the tickets and the flights to bring me over to the Festival for Champion Hurdle day. Richard had planned to have me speak to Channel 4 racing, but Cheltenham is such a busy place that there wasn’t time to organise it.”

This year Mark will perform his own song and you can hear it now by typing ‘mark boylan festival’ into YouTube.com.

“I really wanted to write a song about Cheltenham that was passionate, and that real racing fans would like and understand,” he says. “It would not have been possible to write this song if I had not experienced the Festival last year.”

Mark’s tips for the Festival include Big Zeb, Time For Rupert and Diamond Harry.

[A journalism and new media graduate of the University of Limerick, Mark is now a journalist with the Racing Post]