THE middle of the summer witnessed the end of one of the great careers in Irish racing when Barry Geraghty tweeted on a Saturday evening in mid-July that he had decided to call time on his career.
One of the foremost talents amongst an outstanding generation of National Hunt jockeys in Ireland, Geraghty enjoyed a stellar career that will stand the test of time and he was able to bow out at a time of his own choosing.
While the announcement of his retirement came in the summer, Geraghty departed the saddle at the very height of his powers having partnered five winners at the Cheltenham Festival, the last of which came aboard Saint Roi in the County Hurdle.
A dual champion jockey in Ireland and with 43 Cheltenham Festival wins and just short of 2000 career wins, Geraghty amassed a record that speaks for itself and few thrived on the big stage like he did. His longevity was matched by his brilliance and talent which came to the fore so many times on the big occasion.
More recently, Andrew Lynch was forced to call time on his career as a result of injury which has kept him out of competitive action since February 2019. A fine career yielded 20 Grade 1s for Lynch and he will forever be synonymous with the brilliant Sizing Europe aboard whom he won an Arkle and a Queen Mother at Cheltenham.
THE Cheltenham Festival is a season-defining four days but its overarching dominance is a concern.
The four days at Cheltenham are where champions are made and crowned but there is far more to the National Hunt season than Cheltenham and the relentless focus on the meeting cannot be wholly positive.
This came to the fore again lately after Altior’s late defection from the Tingle Creek Chase where Nicky Henderson made it quite clear that the race that matters for him this season is solely the Champion Chase. Henderson is quite entitled to be focussed on preparing Altior for another assault on the Queen Mother.
However, there are plenty of great races throughout the calendar that showed be viewed and considered in their own right and they don’t all have to be defined in terms of being prep races for Cheltenham.
FAUGHEEN’s second Grade 1 win over fences at the Dublin Racing Festival was quite the occasion.
Performance of the Year
BACK-to-back winners of the Cheltenham Gold Cup are all too rare and Al Boum Photo’s achievement in doing so was a standout performance.
Something to look forward to
MORE than anything, all of us yearn for a return to racing with normal attendances. Hopefully, this is something we could see by the time the major summer meetings came around.