It was the one race he had never won despite competing in it for 15 years, but yesterday local jockey Barry Geraghty broke his duck and won the Boylesports Irish Grand National at Fairyhouse. The crowd went wild when he returned to the winner’s enclosure on JP McManus’s Shutthefrontdoor.
“I live just a mile down the road and this means a lot to me,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming.” His brother Ross won the race on The Bunny Boiler in 2002 and he was never slow to remind him of it.
“I’d say he’ll be texting me later,” he said, before running off to ride the winner of the next race. That’s just how they do things here in Ratoath.
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The local win was a perfect climax for a day when the sun shone, all corporate suites were sold out and there was a lengthy queue at the ATMs all day.
Stray ostrich
Taoiseach Enda Kenny had only got out of the car when he bagged three tips from the ATM queue. And none of the tips advised jumping into a lake, so it was a good day all round.
He was in jovial form, posing for selfies and almost having an eye taken out by a rogue ostrich feather poking askew from a hat. He plonked kisses on two sisters and gave Fine Gael MEP Maireád McGuinness a smacker too in an effort to boost her re-election campaign.
Then former Miss World Rosanna Davison posed with him and he fanned his chest with a race programme, exclaiming about his galloping heart beat. “Rosie, give the Taoiseach a kiss,” urged a photographer but the model gave a dazzling smile and pretended not to hear him.
She was there to judge the Carton House Most Stylish Lady competition along with style svengali Brendan Courtney. He recalled how a photograph of him and his sisters in a swing boat at the races made the front page of this newspaper when he was a boy.
The judges ruled that Capt Catherine Lundon from Mullingar won the style war. Based at Cathal Brugha barracks, the blonde soldier was wearing a gold jacket, black trousers and a Fiona Mangan hat. Her age and her relationship status were deemed to be classified, as she returns to the barracks tomorrow and is expecting a ribbing from her colleagues. “I can’t have everyone in the Defence Forces knowing my age.”
Earlier someone asked the Taoiseach if he would be putting a bet on. “You have to have belief and faith in this business,” he declared with a smile. “Politics and horse-racing are much of a muchness.”
Bend his ear
But he wouldn't have been smiling if he had known what was ahead. Among his lunch companions were Bill Cullen and Jackie Lavin, and they were determined to bend his ear.
The couple have been battling banks and receivers since the downfall of their car and hotel empire, but they opened their new Ssangyong car dealership six weeks ago and things are looking up. “I will have an awful lot to say to Enda,” said a fired-up Lavin. “I think he has abandoned the normal people of the country”
No wonder the Taoiseach looked a little wan later. He may have received some support from fellow racegoers Minister of State Tom Hayes and local TD Helen McEntee.
Also in attendance were chef Derry Clarke, rugby figures Eoin Reddan and Shane Byrne, and an off-duty Ruby Walsh with his wife Gillian.
