Vicarstown Sunday

VICARSTOWN, Co Laois, hosted the Bernie Kelly Memorial meeting last Sunday. Even the best of grass tracks can spring surprises in the world of harness racing. Some horses are lengths better on turf while others like to hear the clatter of hooves on a quarry dust surface.

The landowners had very considerately planted grass or grain in the infield which made for better viewing than the tall maize of last year.

A full mile left-handed circuit with an uphill finish places the emphasis on stamina.

The more experienced drivers come to the fore on this challenging track.

The honours in the Bernie Kelly Pace went to Rhyds Rival while the Trot went to Fina Mix.

Rhyds Rival (5/4 to 1/3) has been cleverly campaigned by his owner Darren Joyce over eight seasons at the races. He is what the trotting crowd call ‘a good grasser’. Usual pilot Billy Roche had a drive at Appleby and Billy’s second cousin Eoin Joyce proved an excellent stand in. Another cousin, Troy McAleer led out with Newtown Major but Eoin sensed a lull in the pace at halfway and sent ‘Rival’ on about his business.

The winning time of 2.04 is a good clock on grass, but how accurate the track was is open to question.

The trotting trophy was a more competitive finish. Michael O’Mahony came in for a catch drive on Fina Mix as young Oisin Quill stuck with Feerie Des Brouets who was so impressive on his first two Irish outings last autumn. Fina Mix (4/1) prevailed by a neck in a head bobber of a finish.

First major win

There was a poignant side to the win as this was the Quills’ first major win since the passing of Oisin’s mum Rose due to cancer last November. Rose would have been in all the photos showing her wonderful smile.

The grade E and F trot went to Dublin as Joe Caffrey guided Helios de Larra (2/1 to 4/6) to a convincing victory.

The gelding has been racing well for first season driver Craig Pidgeon although the more seasoned Joe was in the bike in Laois.

Hippie Sizu was a steady second for Eoin Murphy while John Richardson will be relieved that Immaculata stayed down in third, she would probably be more of a hard track type.

Larry Camden began 2023 by running up a sequence of wins. The gelding, bred at York by Londoner Mick Welling, saw off another product of the Camden nursery, Alexander Camden, driven by Ballymoney farrier Wattie Stewart. Troy McAleer drove the 1/2 winning favourite in the E to F grade contest.

Off the mark

Blanchardstown man Anto Malone has a quiet 2023 but got off the mark for the new season when Eliano Love (2/1) stayed on well to take the grade C trot. Comete Des Landes ran well for second with Eoin Murphy.

Jamie Hurley’s fantastic start to the new season as Ilador led out, made all to claim the F to G trot. Joe Sheridan’s Hidden Love rallied gamely for Jonny Cowden but the Reenascreena runner kept sticking his neck out for Jamie and prevailed by three-quarters of a length at the only post that matters.

Buster Gilligan has already owned a winning trotter in 2024 (Innis and Gunn - who won at the opening meeting).

This time the Naul-based horseman drove a pacing winner himself as Coalford Billy Bats took his maiden by nine lengths.

“We gave him two years to grow into his frame, so hopefully he can start paying us back,” was Buster’s comment. The market of evens to 1/2 was because the gelding has been running well in qualifiers.

Racing continues today and tomorrow at Annaghmore with the Irish American weekend. A delegation of interested persons from both the thoroughbred and harness scene from Maryland, USA, are expected.

The Bank Holiday action will be at Dunmanway on Monday.

HARRY Knows worked superbly in his last pipe opener for the Sweden Cup at Solvalla during last week.

There was a real sense that this newspaper could be carrying news of a fantastic breakthrough for Irish trotting in Scandinavia. Alas, it was not to be due to a combination of factors.

For one thing, the Swedish authorities have some very strict rules regarding the equipment that a horse is allowed to wear. For example, Harry Knows normally wears a head pole (light fibreglass pole to keep a horse’s head straight) on both sides.

For whatever reason at Solvalla, only one pole is allowed which goes some way to explaining the following:

Viewers on the livestream knew they were in trouble as Harry Knows got visibly worked up in the preliminaries. Mark Kane and cousin, Sean Kane, were on the track trying to calm the horse down.

Their efforts were all in vain as the horse got his head kinked to one side and started on a nervous, bouncy canter, the hardest type of gallop to shake a horse out of. Harry Knows continued to ‘act the eejit ‘(Mark Kane’s words) for over 100 yards and they missed the start.

Misbehaving horses

The stewards in Ireland have been known to give misbehaving horses a second chance to get away, it was thought provoking to see this ‘zero tolerance’ approach. Backers lost their money.

Also, in defence of Harry Knows, the 30,000 crowd were cheering and clapping all day and he is accustomed to running in front of relatively tiny crowds in Ireland.

All told, a massive anti-climax for the sporting Kanes from Summerhill, Meath, who regrouped and partied on day two of the meeting, in true Irish style.

On a positive note, the family decided to leave Harry Knows in Sweden with local trainer Jennifer Perssoon so he might still get a chance to redeem himself. Harry Knows is due to run again in a fortnight.

THE 94th running of the Appleby Spring Harness Races proved a wash out in terms of the weather and also in terms of racing luck for the Duggans from Galbally in Tyrone, the sole Irish raiders.

The four-year-old mare Priceless was reported to be difficult to break at two but seemed to have a better attitude on her first year at the races as a three-year-old. Horses don’t read the script and the big homebred (Sweet Lou – Coalford Silk) picked a bad day to be a proper madam.

The experienced Billy Roche, who accomplished so much with Priceless at three, was in the bike but no amount of coaxing would get the mare up to the car. You’d have to feel for the Duggans.

There was some consolation as commentator Darren Owen announced that the mare had been ‘withdrawn as a non-runner by the starter’ and therefore her backers got their money back with a Rule 4 on the winner Born In Lockdown. So much for uniformity of international rules if you think about the Harry Knows scenario!

Below form

Just to make a bad day even worse the Duggans other runner Coalford Henry H ran below form. Driver Tiernan Loughran has a great strike-rate for the barn and he chose to kick on early in the race.

However, the little son of Henry Hill had never encountered such gluey conditions before and finished tired in mid-division.

Sean and Simon Duggan will be hoping for better luck at their home track today.

The horrible summer weather took its toll on Holme Farm field. Patrons, bookies and horse boxes were towed out by tractor as if at an autumn point-to-point. Day two was abandoned.