2013

IN the greatest shock that the race has ever witnessed, the Dot Love-trained Liberty Counsel, under Ben Dalton, made a mockery of her 50/1 starting price to claim a famous win in the Ladbrokes Irish Grand National.

The Easter Monday spectacular has produced a number of surprise results in the last decade, but none could compare with the triumph of this 10-year-old mare who became the longest-priced winner in the 143-year history of the National. In addition, Liberty Counsel was providing her Mullingar-based trainer and 21-year-old jockey with easily the most notable triumph of their respective careers.

Firstly to Danish-born Dot Love, who was a highly accomplished three-day event rider and represented Denmark at international level before she embarked on a training career in 2001.

She has just a handful of horses for the track, and has been ably represented by the smart Shadow Eile in recent seasons, but this was a result of seismic proportions for the yard.

This was also a huge victory for New Ross-born Dalton, who rode the first winner of his career at the Curragh in August 2009. His previous highlight of ending Limerick’s 2011 Christmas Festival as the leading rider was easily eclipsed by this race, where he excelled in conjuring a lifetime best run from Liberty Counsel.

For her part, Liberty Counsel was winning her fourth race over fences, and her first since she picked up a handicap at Kilbeggan last September.

The lightly raced 10-year-old had gone to Cheltenham last month for the Kim Muir, but finished unplaced there and at 50/1 she was the second longest-priced runner in the field. This victory means that six of the last 10 winners of the Irish National have started at 25/1 or bigger.

A near maximum field of 28 went to post and it looked an especially open affair, although at over 102/1 on the Tote, Liberty Counsel hadn’t entered the calculations of many. The daughter of Leading Counsel held a decent position behind the leaders and from the fourth last fence she looked sure to be closely involved, and three out Liberty Counsel took over in front.

Dalton’s mount was under pressure and the strong travelling Away We Go, bidding to give Willie Mullins his first National victory, had moved into a menacing second.

Away We Go still looked to be going the stronger between the final two fences but an ultra-game Liberty Counsel produced a fine jump at the last. This enabled her to maintain her slender advantage and she gave her all on the run-in to hold off Away We Go by half a length. The relatively inexperienced Home Farm ran a fine race to finish a further two and a half lengths away in third. Remarkably there was just one faller.

Jubilant scenes followed in the winner’s enclosure as the Irene Neale and Helen Murtagh-owned mare returned, and a delighted Dot Love exclaimed: “I don’t look it, but I’m stunned. She had no weight on her back and the good ground was going to be a big help to her, so I was hoping she had a chance, but I would have been delighted if she’d finished in the first four. I must thank my assistant Ciaran Murphy who rides her out and schools her and has done a great job with her.

“We do all the pre-training for Michael O’Leary and we love jumping and schooling horses, and that really stood to this mare today. She got a wonderful ride from Ben.”

Reflecting on this landmark triumph, Dalton said: “Going out on the second circuit I felt I was in with a chance. She just kept battling away for me. I knew Paul (Townend, Away We Go) was going very well from the second last, but she just kept battling and produced a big jump when I asked her for one at the last.”

What an easy winner at Aintree

1958

FOR the fourth time since 1946, but only the fifth time in the present century, the Grand National was won on Saturday last by a horse trained in Ireland, when Mr P.J. Coughlan’s Mr What, trained at Rathcoole, Co Dublin by Tom Taaffe and ridden by the Queen’s jockey, Arthur Freeman, scored with surprising ease.

With the Irish Hospitals’ Trust, Ltd, donating £5,000 and the Liverpool executive stepping up the added money, the total stake (£16,735) was much higher than ever before, and of that amount £13,719 (including cups) went to the owner of the winner.

The race, perhaps, has never been won with greater ease, Mr What scoring, with his ears pricked, by an official 30 lengths from last year’s third, Tiberetta, who was 15 lengths ahead of Green Drill. There were 31 runners, of whom only seven finished. The going was very holding and the time taken by the winner was a fraction under 10 minutes, against the average time for the race of 9m 24.6secs, and the record time of 9m 20.2secs, taken by Reynoldstown in 1935.

The merit of Mr What’s performance was enhanced by the fact that, at the fifth fence, all the breath was knocked out of him when he was cannoned into and he dropped back almost to last.

Freeman showed fine judgement in giving him plenty of time to recover, and by the time the racecourse was reached Mr What was easily out-jumping and outpacing the others. The race was prevented from being an all-Irish triumph by the sons of the trainer, Pat and Toss Taaffe, being previously claimed for Sentina and Sam Brownthorn respectively.

Originally, it was intended that W.J. Brennan would ride Mr What, but the mount was offered to Freeman and the agreement was adhered to when Toss became available through the scratching of Sam Brownthorn. That Freeman had to put up 6lb overweight made the success of his mount all the more remarkable.

Mr What, an eight-year-old who was not put to chasing until late in 1956 and gained his first success over fences in a novice chase at Dundalk in September last, must have tremendous possibilities as a staying chaser, and pays tribute to the skill and foresight of his popular trainer. The race also further reflects the dearth of top-class chasers in training across the Channel.

It is true that none of the leading park horses, such as Mandarin, Lochroe, Polar Flight, Kerstin, Linwell and Hall Weir were in the field, and Mandarin, Polar Flight and Hall Weir (all eight-year-olds) may become National horses later on, but it is extremely doubtful whether any of them would have challenged last Saturday’s winner.

Back in business at the Phoenix Park

1983

IN a blaze of publicity, the Phoenix Park reopened its doors to the public on Saturday last.

While I was not informed of the attendance figure officially, it was put at around 12,000. Personally I would have estimated it to be a couple of thousand less than that figure.

The Totalisator aggregate of almost £119,000 established a record for the track, but was somewhat disappointing in view of the large attendance.

Considering the rather bleak weather, most of those present seemed to enjoy the afternoon. There were teething problems, but it would be unfair to criticise the majority of these without a proper passage of time. One obvious drawback is that viewing from the stands, on the lower steps, was badly impeded, and bookmakers were bewailing the fact that they could not see the racing at all.

Of the actual racing, the main interest centred on the seasonal reappearance of the unbeaten Danzatore in the Minstrel 3-y-o Stakes over nine furlongs. Mr Daniel Schwartz’s colt set out to make all the running, and beat off one challenge after another before passing the post one length and a head in front of Quilted and Iron Leader. The winner’s performance could hardly be termed scintillating, but it was workmanlike and he was giving substantial weight to the placed pair. For all that he is, at time of writing, poor value at 7/4 for the 2000 Guineas.

Miss P.F. O’Kelly’s Flame Of Tara showed herself as good as ever when giving weight and a beating to her rivals in the Thomastown Castle Stud 3-y-o Fillies Race.