Archive News
Another Irish bonanza on cards as Mullins yard leads the charge
Date Published: {J}
John McIntyre
WE had never seen the likes of it before. The Irish raiding party has occasionally taken Cheltenham by storm in the past – notably, in 2006 when Brave Inca and War Of Attrition headed a record-breaking haul of ten winners – but 12 months ago, there was carnage altogether as Willie Mullins and company virtually swept all before them.
A staggering 13 Irish winners, including six of the seven races on the Wednesday card, shook Cheltenham to its foundations as the home defence of National Hunt’s most prestigious meeting was battered to an unprecedented level. Ironically, the only race not to have fallen the invader’s way on the second day of the festival was the Champion Bumper which has largely been an Irish benefit since first introduced in 1992.
Against that background, hopes are high of another Irish bonanza next week, particularly as Mullins, the festival’s top trainer 12 months ago, will be heading to Cheltenham with an even stronger looking team this year. His heavy artillery, which includes multiple contenders for the novice hurdles, will be spearheaded by Hurricane Fly and Quevega, with the progressive Quel Esprit holding an each way chance in the Gold Cup.
Mullins’ stable has never been in ruder health as evidenced by his increasing stranglehold of the Irish National Hunt scene – a reality reflected by the Co. Carlow based handler having turned out more winners and earned more prizemoney so far this season than the country’s next three most successful trainers, Noel Meade, Edward O’Grady and Jessica Harrington, put together. That is a staggering level of dominance and, frankly, probably isn’t good for the sport as a whole, but that’s an issue for another day.
Naturally, Irish punters will be investing heavily in Mullins’ raiding party, but the big question ahead of the festival is can the holders of the four most prestigious races at Cheltenham repeat last year’s exploits in the Cotswolds next week? Long Run, Big Buck’s, Hurricane Fly and Sizing Europe are all strong favourites to defend their crowns and though its never been done before – hasn’t even come close – there must be reasonable prospects of new ground being broken in 2012.
Bookmaker odds on this unprecedented feat occurring are only around 14/1 and while that looks a miserly offer at first glance, on the formbook alone Big Buck’s (World Hurdle), Hurricane Fly (Champion Hurdle), Sizing Europe (Champion Chase) and Long Run (Gold Cup) remain the horses to beat in the meeting’s flagship contests.
Given the traditional ultra-competitive nature of the festival, it’s unusual that the headline races have such a one-horse appeal about them and nervous bookmakers will be keeping their fingers crossed that a couple of the reigning big race champions are turned over next week, especially as the likes of Quevega (David Nicholson Mares Hurdle), Sprinter Sacre (Arkle Chase) and Grand Crus (RSA Chase) are also being rated banker material.
When Long Run became the first six-year-old to land the Gold Cup last year since Mill House in 1963, the French import was generally expected to have a long reign as the leading staying chaser in the British Isles, but a couple of early season reversals at the hands of the remarkable Kauto Star has forced some downgrading of those prospects, especially as his amateur rider, Sam Waley-Cohen, hasn’t been entirely convincing in the plate.
For all that, Waley-Cohen was faultless around Prestbury Park in 2011 and will head to the festival boosted by Long Run’s workmanlike win in the Betfair Chase at Newbury last month. Though runner-up and stable-mate, Burton Port, wasn’t subjected to a vigorous ride by Barry Geraghty, it’s clear that Nicky Henderson’s stable star is building towards a seasonal peak in Cheltenham where the horse’s proven stamina can prove decisive again.
Having looked a spent force when pulling up at the Punchestown festival last May, retirement was being mooted for Kauto Star, but the best chaser seen since Arkle has sensationally returned to something near his best form with emotional triumphs in the Betfair Chase at Haddock in early November and a record-breaking fifth King George, but he is now a 12 year-old and only two horses of that vintage, Silver Fame in 1951, and What A Myth in 1969, have landed the Gold Cup in the past.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
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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