ST Patrick’s Day meant a trip to Ballynoe whose committee bravely accepted the challenge to move their fixture forward from its customary Sunday in April. They were rewarded with a good crowd and competitive racing.

Nearly everyone seemed pleased with the earlier date as the softer ground meant handlers did not have to worry too much about their charges getting jarred up on the downhill section of this track.

I always enjoy this meeting, though it has clashed with more local fixtures in recent years, so the new date got the thumbs up from myself and my fellow traveller who was making a first visit to the venue.

The feature race was the Gain Mares Final which is open to novice mares from any hunt in Ireland. There was a €3,000 bonus on offer to the winning mare yet, with no other meetings on the same day, the entry was very much confined to horses from the Cork/Waterford region with only one from Wexford, which had won its maiden in Cork, among the 14 entries.

FURTHER AFIELD

While the quality of the contestants was undoubtedly above-average one has to wonder why there were no challengers from further afield. Was the added money not a desirable carrot or were owners and handlers fully aware of its availability. Surely there are young mares of ability elsewhere in the country good enough to contest this race.

While on the subject of the Gain race, it is interesting to note that it is the only novice race run in the season that is confined to horses who were maidens at the start of the season in September. When I first came to Ireland one of the things that struck me over 40 years ago was the more imaginative framing of races here than in the very hidebound structure in Britain.

While our races are still far less formulated it is surely possible to try and make some meetings more attractive with new ideas. This is particularly so with some of the two-day meetings where a genuine feature race is badly needed to give some extra colour to cards which are dominated by maiden races.

One or two more novice races would give extra interest, there is no such race for geldings at present. Surely the winner of such a race would command a premium at any of the sales. As an afterthought should former track performers be excluded from such races?