2006

IT was only a matter of time, and that time was 2005. Sadler’s Wells, champion sire every year since 1992 in Ireland and Britain, finally relinquished his crown. To nobody’s surprise, it went to his long-time neighbour Danehill.

Many times champion sire in Australasia, and runner-up here to Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) for the past few years, Danehill (Danzig) scored a clear-cut victory in this year’s championship.

With five individual Group 1 winners in Ireland and England, and 11 others who won either pattern or listed events, he had a truly exceptional year.

Sadler’s Wells, for whom Yeats was the only ‘local’ Group 1 winner, had to settle for third, with exciting youngster Montjeu separating the pair.

In a season when only nine stallions managed to pass the €1 million mark in total earnings in Ireland and Britain, the top of the table once again featured many of the usual suspects. However, it also featured a number of young stallions who look set to take over from their elders and to become the champion sires of the future.

With many of the leading stallions now in the veteran stages of their career, time may tell that 2005 was a pivotal year. Of the top 10 finishers, Danehill died in 2003, Sadler’s Wells is 25, Night Shift is 26, Machiavellian (Mr Prospector) died in 2004, while Indian Ridge is 21. Good young blood is needed.

Most striking of the younger horses was championship runner-up Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells), who had made one of the most exciting starts to a stallion career for a long time. Just as noteworthy was the ninth place finish for Giant’s Causeway (Storm Cat). Both stallion were represented by their first three-year-olds.

If they can continue to supply horses of the calibre of Footstepsinthesand (Giant’s Causeway), Hurricane Run (Montjeu), Maids Causeway (Giant’s Causeway), Motivator (Montjeu), Scorpion (Montjeu) and Shamardal (Giant’s Causeway), then this pair may be the Sadler’s Wells and Danehill of the next decade. Montjeu is at Coolmore, while Giant’s Causeway is at Ashford Stud in Kentucky.

Night Shift

Star colt Azamour was amongst those who helped Coolmore’s veteran stallion Night Shift (Northern Dancer) to fifth place, while Machiavellian’s five local pattern winners were headed by top two-year-old Palace Episode. The Irish National Stud’s flagbearer Indian Ridge (Ahonoora) was without a Group 1 winner this time around, but another solid season saw him notch up a top-10 finish.

Pivotal (Polar Falcon), the Cheveley Park sire who finished third in 2004, had another excellent year, thereby strengthening the impression that he is a future champion sire in the making. The fillies Peeress and Saoire were Group 1 winners.

Danehill Dancer (Danehill) featured Where Or When and Choisir in his first crops, and though his better books only started arriving after that, Coolmore’s 13-year-old finished a highly meritorious eighth on the table.

The remaining member of the top 10 of 2005 was something of a surprise, but his fourth place was not only absolutely deserved, but a feat that we can expect to see repeated. Darley’s Halling (Diesis) had an excellent year all around Europe. Franklins Gardens, Hattan, Norse Dancer and The Geezer were pattern winners in England.

Rain stops play all across England

1936

THANKS be to goodness we have no racing in this country for some weeks to come. Had we some fixtures – had we a winter season proper – we might be in the position which English racing finds itself at present.

Ireland appears to have escaped the worst of the deluge of rain and storm which has swept over Western Europe lately, but we have had sufficient taste of both to know how fortunate we have been in getting off so cheaply.

Racing under National Hunt rules has been at a standstill in England this week, and all the vested interests affected by the stoppage are to be consoled with. It is desperate hard lines upon an executive to have everything ready for a meeting and then have the fixture wiped, or rather washed, out.

Following Sunday’s downpour there was considerable anxiety in Dublin over the fixture at Naas on the following day.

However, there was a decided improvement in the weather on Monday, and furthermore the Naas countryside did not appear to have suffered as much from the downpour as the city had suggested, and so the meeting was carried through.

The conditions were unpleasant, rain falling all the time, and although the racing was alright, there was not the usual ‘kick’ in this sporting fixture, and nobody was very sorry when the card was finished.

We suggest, therefore, that it is just as well that there are no racing fixtures within the immediate future. If there were we would be full of anxiety during the intervening time. It would not surprise us to hear that the English racing authorities are envying our inaction; ours voluntary, theirs compulsory.

The next meeting in this country will be at Leopardstown on Saturday, February 1st – three weeks away today. By that time the spell of rain and storm should have exhausted itself. Let us hope, at any rate, that it will have done so.

[A meeting at Baldoyle on January 1st and Naas on January 6th were the only meetings held in Ireland that month in 1936. The meeting at Leopardstown on February 1st went ahead when the feature was the Leopardstown Plate, a chase over two miles and a furlong. Worth £146 10s to the winner, it went to Noble Tipp, trained at Ratoath, Co Meath by Tom McKeever, ridden by the leading amateur ‘Mickey’ Macardle]

Small talk with David Abbott

2011

Occupation: Director general of the Association of Irish Riding Clubs, and newsreader

If you weren’t doing this job, what would you like to be? A downhill skier. Think of the fun you’d have hurtling down a slope at speeds of up to 150km

What was your biggest success to date? I’ve broken a few big national news stories on local radio station KCLR 96FM. Some of these were tragic stories, but there’s also the odd good one

And your biggest setback? Driving around the country; too much time is spent in the car

How did you get involved in the sport? I wanted to try it out after watching horse racing and show jumping on television, and it’s stayed with me throughout the years

What’s the best thing about the sport? It’s a great leveller. You can have a fantastic day, while the next might not be so good

And the worst? Well, no one likes falling off, do they? Particularly in front of others!

What is you all-time favourite horse? It would have to be Kilbaha. He sticks out in my mind for having won the Hickstead Derby on a few occasions with Captain John Ledingham. The Irish Army Equitation School has been of great benefit to the country and long may it continue

What’s your favourite gadget? It would have to be my iPhone. I use it for checking emails, keeping up with the news from home and abroad, listening to music and streaming radio stations worldwide. It makes it all just too easy

What’s your favourite movie? I’m a big fan of the Batman series of films, so it has to be The Dark Knight, directed by Christopher Nolan

What’s your idea of a perfect night? Meeting up with friends and going to some sort of event, be it a concert, sporting event or just into town

What’s your worst habit? Forgetting people’s names; it’s never intentional

Who is your favourite sportsperson and why? American alpine skier Bode Miller. He’s a bit controversial and slightly mad, but he won his first Olympic gold medal last February in Vancouver

What music do you like? I have a very eclectic taste in music which encompasses most genres, but at the moment I am listening to an Australian band, Little Red

Are you a healthy eater? I’d like to think so, but probably not

How much time do you spend on the internet each day? Way too much – I really need to reduce it. I spend too much time on Twitter, Facebook and news sites, and that’s outside of work!

What sport drives you mad, and why? Cricket. I’ve no idea how it work

Describe yourself in one word:

Easy-going