Death of racing legend: The headline on page two reads: “Death of a racing legend.” On Wednesday, Paddy Sleator dies, aged 87, at his home in Grange Con, Co Wicklow. He was a master of his trade, and his accomplishments include winning the 1960 Champion Hurdle with Another Flash; and 10 Galway Plates. Between 1955 and 1961, he was the leading Irish trainer in number of winners, including 74 winners in 1958, when there were fewer than 150 meetings a year.
Another of his successful horses was Scottish Memories, who won 23 out of his first 29 runs over jumps. These included the Mackeson Gold Cup, the Cheltenham Trial Hurdle, and the Cathcart Chase. Other Cheltenham Festival winners included Black Ice, Sparkling Flame, Havago and Ballywilliam Boy.
During the sixties, Sleator set up a satellite training operation based near Warwick, and these horses, on paper, were trained by Arthur Thomas. This brought plenty of winners until the Jockey Club stepped in.
The obituary also says that Sleator will be remembered as “always smartly dressed” and “with his cigarette holder and quiet smile that rightly implied he knew something more than us ordinary mortals.” The article is accompanied by a photo of Sleator, with cigarette in a holder in his mouth.
Double for Murtagh: Gowran Park stages racing on Saturday afternoon and the going is good to firm.
The feature race is the Victor McCalmont Memorial Fillies Stakes, a listed race over a mile and a half, worth £9,825. There are seven runners, and they are led home by the 11/10 favourite Tout A Coup, trained by Ger Cusack and ridden by Michael Kinane. It’s now three wins from three starts this season for the daughter of Ela-Mana-Mou.
Johnny Murtagh has a double, starting with Gan Ainm in the opening juvenile fillies maiden; and completed later when Life Support wins the seven furlong handicap at 12/1.
There is a ladies race, which is won by 4/5 on favourite Song Of The Sword, trained by Michael Kauntze and ridden by his daughter Sophia.
Thanks also to Sir Big John, 20/1 winner of the Ormonde Handicap, and Le Grande Bard winning the three mile handicap hurdle at 16/1, the Jackpot is not won, so £3,545 is carried forward to tomorrow.
Treacy rides a brace: Kilbeggan on Monday evening gets a large attendance and the going is good to firm. Tommy Treacy has a double. It starts with the opening handicap hurdle, where Treacy is on board Parskint, who is actually in fourth place coming to the last. But the reins break on Straight On, who runs out, and carries out the favourite Let It Ride. Treacy makes a move on Parskint, and they win by three quarters of a length from Sandra Louise.
The Treacy double is completed when Cabbery Rose leads home Preceptor by 15 lengths to win the Tullamore Beginners’ Chase. They are the only finishers out of seven starters.
Jackpot punters basically know their fate when Bobsville and Francis Woods win the third race, the three mile maiden hurdle, at 14/1. It’s the gelding’s first run for trainer Arthur Moore, and the eight-year-old has been off the track for over a year. The Jackpot pool of £5,281 is not won.
Sheridan hangs up his boots: The going is good at Tramore on Tuesday evening, and the opening handicap hurdle turns out to provide the main news of the evening. Brendan Sheridan rides Kephren to victory, and then promptly retires.
Now 35, it is 18 years since the amateur rider, Mr Brendan Sheridan, had his first winner at Tramore on Mac’s Son. “I rode my first winner here, and this is a great place to stop. It’s a fairytale really,” he tells the press afterwards. Sheridan will take up duty as a Turf Club official on August 1st.
There are two steeplechases this evening, and both are won by Cork-based trainers, and both ridden by amateurs. Jimmy Mangan comes from Conna with Stroll Home, who wins the Brownstown Beginners’ Chase in the hands of Mr Dermot Costello; later the Berrings stable of Gerry Cully celebrates after winning the Portlaw Handicap Chase with There Tis For Ya, ridden by Mr Kevin O’Sullivan.
Kauntze retires: Trainer Michael Kauntze has decided to hand in his licence, and his stables at Bullstown, near Ashbourne, are for sale next month. The 55-year-old has taken the decision for economic reasons. Currently, he has 16 horses in training. The best horse under his care was the filly Kooyonga, winner of the Irish 1,000 Guineas, Coronation Stakes, and Coral Eclipse Stakes.
Northern racecourses finances: A short news piece brings good financial news for the two racecourses in the North. This comes after “two years of intensive activity behind the scenes with the Department of Agriculture” and involving Down Royal chairman Jim Nicholson, and Downpatrick manager, Iain Duff.
The off-course bookmakers’ contribution to the Horseracing Fund has increased from £476 to £900 per shop, and on-course bookies will have their fee increased from £61 to £80.
Nicholson says that a more significant change would be a levy on the 320 shops. The Government currently takes in £14 million a year from the off-course betting tax.
Weld Ascot winner: Ian Carnaby’s weekly column is on page seven, and is about this week’s Royal Ascot meeting. The photograph is of Gordi and Michael Kinane winning the Queen’s Vase, an 11th Royal Ascot success for trainer Dermot Weld.
On Tuesday, Verglas wins the Coventry Stakes. He is trained by Kevin Prendergast, and ridden by Willie Supple. Kevin’s father, Paddy, won the Coventry Stakes six times.
On Thursday, the Gold Cup is won by Classic Cliche, ridden by Michael Kinane. Classic Cliche is winner of last year’s St Leger. The last horse to win the St Leger, and follow up with the Gold Cup next year, was Ocean Swell, 51 years ago.
Kinane’s good week starts with winning the opening Queen Anne Stakes on Charnwood Forest, and also includes victory in the Queen Mary Stakes on Dance Parade.
Italian triumph: Strategic Choice, winner of last year’s Irish St Leger, takes another Group 1 prize last Sunday in the Gran Premio di Milano. Trained by Paul Cole, the son of Alleged is ridden by Richard Quinn.
Page 11 has the Home Thoughts From Abroad column by Julian Armfield. Among the topics today is jockey Jimmy Quinn. Armfield describes the Wexford man as “the hardest-working Flat jockey” as he strives to reach his target of 1,000 rides in a season.
Quinn gives credit to his training at RACE in Kildare: “The apprentices at the two British schools have it easy compared to the strict regime of the Irish academy. We had to undergo two months’ army training and by the time we had completed the course, I understood what they meant when they told us that we would go in as boys and come out as men. They even taught us how to speak to trainers and how to behave in front of them!” Quinn has ridden 30 winners so far this season.
Irish WEG plans: Grania Willis reports on the latest stage in planning the World Equestrian Games of 1998, due to be held in Ireland. At a press conference on Thursday, John Donlon, chief executive of WEG Ireland Ltd, says that he is confident that the Games will not lose money.
Nissan has put in £2 million in sponsorship, and Donlon admits that WEG Ireland is looking for another £1.4 million in funding. The Government has guaranteed operational costs of “£250,000 for the next two years for WEG Ireland. Donlon also says that during a “painstaking” review of the scheme, both Nissan and the Government are “comfortable with the commercial viability of the project.”
The official launch of the 1998 Games will be held at the Nations Cup meeting at Aachen next Saturday.
The Irish Horse World also has a report from Nicholas O’Hare about the possibility of Ireland staging the Olympic Games in 2008, stating that a successful 1998 WEG will be a decisive factor. Yesterday, a report is issued by a body called the Dublin International Sports Council (DISC), which has Jonathan Irwin as chief executive. The report is the result of 12 working groups, looking at various aspects of the Olympics Games, and it estimates that an Irish Olympics could create 19,000 jobs and have a direct economic impact of £925 million.
Irwin says that venues for the games could be provided by “development projects already in hand”. The report also refers to “a long term infrastructural strategy”, as well as “a positive sporting legacy for the future.”
O’Hare’s last paragraph is: “Tourism Minister Enda Kenny may have thought he had problems in dealing with WEG. What sort of headaches are going to come his way with the prospect of a multi-discipline international jamboree?”