The Galway Races: immoral and magnificent at the same time!

What’s a fella to do, as the song says. The thunder clouds roll in and it’s sweaty and the flies are out and it’s been another Race Week.

To be honest, I’ve no idea what the weather’s like as you read. I just took a punt. A gamble. Sunshine, showers, humid and bit on the shtinky side, d’y’know. Race Week weather.

Siobhan in Claregalway spent hours in front of her long cupboard mirror on Thursday morning, checking her accessories. Tommy from Salthill, well, nobody’s seen hide nor hair of him for days, but that’s the way it is in Race Week. He’ll get himself into a card game and you won’t see him ‘til he’s done. Used to be a problem back in the day when the kids were young, but now, well, to be honest, it frees up his long-suffering missis for a few days. So everyone’s happy.

Everyone’s happy because it’s Race Week. Himself from Ballybrit is happy because he gets a bit of work at the Owners and Trainers Bar. He’s on the door, watching the good money coming in and the bad money going out. He’s grinning to himself at the pittance he’s being paid compared to these Fianna Fail gombeens. He’s watching it all and lapping up the scenery. It’s like a human Noah’s Ark so it is, coming and going.

There’s the ones who should be coming and going, and they’d tend to be yer trainers and owners, and then there’s all these other yokes who are looking for nothing but a little bit of information, d’y’see? Just a nod or a wink from the bloke who owns a fetlock and Colm from Roscommon is on to his phone to do the betting on t’internet faster than the Heineken floods cold nectar into his glass from the tap in front of him.

Then there are the players. He sees them, because he knows how people can hide in plain sight. The really good ones are the ones that most people miss, but he sees them, what with his training and all that. Hiding in plain sight, relaxed, happy, calm, but sucking up the hottest angles, placing the biggest bundles on the nose.

They’re not yer each way betters. He smiles as he thinks of it. No, these aren’t yer each wayers. These are the players.

The work is good, he’s happy for it, but the watching, listening and learning, that’s better than a banker’s bonus. Well, no, not better than a banker’s bonus, but great craic. Rather be doing it than not, safe to say.

For more of Charlie’s thoughts on Race Week see the Tribune here.