Archive News
Article looks the real deal
Date Published: {J}
John McIntyre
TOP cross channel National Hunt trainers Paul Nicholls and David Pipe have the Tote sponsored Galway Plate – the richest steeplechase on the summer racing calendar – firmly in their sights at Ballybrit next week.
Nicholls, who saddled Oslot to land the Plate in 2008, is set to be represented by current ante post favourite, Rebel Du Maquis, a French import which hacked up from Invisible Man in Stratford in May and has a progressive profile.
Even more impressive on his last outing was the Pipe trained Qulinton, a 19 lengths winner from a decent field in the Summer Plate at Market Rasen last Saturday and is now destined for Galway to contest next Wednesday’s €200,000 feature.
But Rebel Du Maquis and Qulinton will both have to repel a strong home challenge, headed by Majestic Concorde, Captain Cee Bee, a short head winner of the Kevin McManus Bookmaker Grimes Hurdle at Tipperary last Sunday and also entered in the Guinness Hurdle, and Dancing Tornado.
Yet, it could pay to row in behind course specialist Bahrain Storm despite the eight-year-old’s relative inexperience over the larger obstacles. Winner of the Galway Hurdle in 2009 and second in the race last year, Pat Flynn’s charge underlined his current well being with a solid effort in justifying favouritism at Killarney earlier in the month.
Owned by the Sweeney family in Loughrea, Bahrain Storm has escaped a penalty for that success and though, like top weight Captain Cee Bee, has his stamina to prove, he is attractively handicapped and looks the one to beat. Eoin Griffin’s Lucky Wish, successful over three miles in Limerick in June, is another for the shortlist, while the Jessica Harrington Dundrum could be a lively outsider.
With last year’s impressive front-running winner Overturn more likely to head for the Goodwood Cup on the same day and Bahrain Storm bound for the Plate, the weights look set for a hefty rise in the €260,000 Guinness Galway Hurdle next Thursday.
Gordon Elliott’s Dirar, third in the race 12 months ago, is back for another crack while Dermot Weld’s Hidden Universe and Liam Mulryan’s Plan A are also featuring strongly in the ante post market. The teak-tough Gimli’s Rock, winner of a handicap on Irish Derby day at the Curragh, and the locally owned Action Master have been attracting support too.
But the big race favourite is The Real Article which really caught the eye after running Captain Cee Bee to a short head in the Grimes Hurdle at Tipperary after a hands and heels ride from Paddy Mangan. The 5lbs claimer was subsequently called before the Stewards to explain his handling of the exciting six-year-old.
Edward O’Grady’s charge was nearly two stone wrong at the weights, but this multiple bumper winner made a mockery of his rating and given that The Real Article will be racing off his old mark of 127 at Galway – he has been raised to 145 in future – he could be a blot on the handicap in Ireland’s richest National Hunt race.
Ask Jack, owned by Athenry businessman, Tom Howley Jnr, is set for another crack at the Topaz Mile Handicap on Tuesday evening. The money-spinning seven-year-old came home two and a half lengths clear of Mid Mon Lady in last year’s renewal and though gone up a stone in the ratings in the interim, looks to have been laid out again for the second-day Galway highlight, especially after his close up fourth behind Pirateer in the Dubai Duty Free Celebration Stakes at the Curragh last month.
Two interesting contenders have emerged for the Carlton.iegalwaycity Handicap, the feature on Monday evening’s card. Possible UK raider Praxiteles could have the assistance of top amateur jockey Derek O’Connor in the two mile event after recent wins at Bath and Ffos Las, while End Of The Affair may attempt to follow up an emphatic success in the Boyle Sports Handicap at Dundalk in mid-July.
Naturally, the Dermot Weld
stable will again lack nothing in festival firepower and the Ballybrit specialist looks set to get the meeting off to a flyer in the four-year-old novice hurdle on Monday with UK import, Sulwaan, an impressive winner on his debut over the smaller obstacles in Sligo last Sunday week.
Weld, who has now won the Trainers’ Championship a staggering 26 times, turned out a record-breaking 11 winners at last’s year festival and has amassed a remarkable career total off 221 victories at Ballybrit – no wonder, he has been appointed an honorary member of the Galway Race Committee.
Novice chaser Air Chief, the David Marnane trained Jamesie, set to go for the Ladbroke’s seven furlong handicap next Saturday, recent Fairyhouse scorer Kalann, handicap hurdler, Alderwood, successful in Killarney last week, and Francis Flood inmate, Van Wyck, also triumphant at the Co. Kerry track, could all try to augment their summer pickings in Galway.
Local trainers came away from last year’s festival empty-handed, but Athenry based Val O’Brien is hopeful that Fair Dilemma, a comfortable winner of the Malton Handicap Hurdle at Killarney ten days ago, could follow up in a similar type event at Ballybrit. O’Brien is also optimistic about the festival prospects of Abarta which has been running with some consistency in maiden hurdles lately.
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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