Archive News
Aintree veteran Black Apalachi back for one last crack at National
Date Published: 12-Apr-2012
JUST two horses in the last 25 years have carried more than 11st to victory in the Aintree Grand National.
Since the gruelling race was first run at Liverpool in 1829, only two 13-year-olds has come home first.
Only twice since 1980 has a 40/1 shot come up trumps in the most famous National Hunt race in the world.
The odds are stacked against Black Apalachi – a 13-year-old, carrying 11st 3lb, and priced in the ante-post market at 40/1.
His owner, Castlegar man Gerard Burke, knows he’s up against it but is upbeat about his chances in the famous handicap chase run over four and half miles and 30 fences.
“He’s in good form and all that’s against him is his age, but he has fairly low mileage on him even at 13,” he said.
And the weight, is that too prohibitive? “Ah sure every horse owner and trainer will cry about the weights, that’s part of it,” explained Burke.
Black Apalachi was gearing up for a tilt at the Aintree Grand National last year but in the months beforehand in a warm up race at Punchestown, Burke felt his horse ‘had a bit of heat’ and so he was ruled out for the rest of the season.
His ratings didn’t change since, however, and as a result must carry a hefty burden in Aintree. “For his age he should have got a few pounds off but look, that’s handicap racing, it’s all part of it,” said Burke.
One big plus for Black Apalachi, trained by the Curragh-based Dessie Hughes, is the going – it’s due to rain every day up to Saturday at Liverpool which should ensure soft enough ground, which he relishes. Another advantage is his experience. This is Black Apalachi’s fourth attempt at this marathon event. He was runner up to Don’t Push It in April, 2010, finishing five lengths second to Tony McCoy’s mount but a staggering 20 lengths clear of State of Play in third.
In 2008, he fell at the second fence on his debut trip to the Liverpool track, when he was sent off joint favourite; and in 2009, he was motoring along nicely, way out in front, when he unseated his rider Denis O’Regan at the famous Beecher’s Brook fence the second time round, with just about a mile left to race.
Despite these two incidents, Burke has no worries about Black Apalachi’s jumping ability. “I’ve no doubts at all about his jumping. He’s a natural jumper and he loves Aintree – his eyes light up there. There’s a bit of excitement and trumpets and that at the start that can be off-putting, but if he can get over the first two or three he should be fine.
“He’s a stayer, too. There’s no question that he’ll stay as long as his age doesn’t catch up with him. We just don’t know. He’ll stay out of trouble as well. He usually gets out in front and avoids the traffic so he only has the fences to worry about. Who knows?
There’s always that bit of hope that he might do it. He’s at 40/1 but he has a good following – he’s been around a long time and there’re a lot of grannies who put a few Euro on him! I think they pay for a sixth place now so he’s ideal for an each way.”
Burke won’t decide until this November if Black Apalachi has the appetite for another season but on the law of averages, at 13, this could be his last season – and this race could be his ‘last hurray’, for a horse that provided memorable wins, including the big Paddy Power Handicap Chase at Leopardstown in 2005, the 2008 Becher Chase at Cheltenham and the 2009 Grade 2 Bobbyjo Chase at Fairyhouse.
“He’s been a great servant and hopefully he’ll go out in style. You just never know; I’d like him to come back safe first of all and then you never know. That’s the beauty of racing, every time you put a bridal on a young filly you think this could be the one but so many of them end up making a fool of you!
That’s what it’s all about but we’ve had great days with Black Apalachi and we hope he can go out in style,” added Burke.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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