The shrieks and excited screams of the young people of Ireland grew louder as the soon-to-be former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar walked through the Fairyhouse Racecourse on Monday afternoon, but those shrieks and screams were almost completely drowned out when he was spotted by hundreds of young men in the grandstand who quickly started chanting his name with considerable enthusiasm.
It is possible drink had been taken.
The Taoiseach smiled gamely all the same, and gave the roaring twentysomethings a wave before making his way quickly to a considerably more sedate VIP suite in the company of Minister for Justice Helen McEntee and Fine Gael’s European Parliament hopeful Nina Carberry, who was both on the campaign trail and on familiar turf.
Poor Simon Harris wasn’t greeted with the same level of exuberance and had to make to do with the attention of the journalists shouting policy questions at him rather than his name.
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The questions for Harris might have been hard but the day was soft and in more ways than one.
As the crowd readied themselves for an Irish Grand National comprising one of the smallest fields in donkey’s years, a light drizzle enveloped them and made some of the wardrobe choices on display seem, at best, unwise. It was cold and it was wet and there was barely a coat to be seen among the young members in attendance.
The murky dampness didn’t make life easy for the horses either, with the soft day making the going soft to heavy and then just heavy.
The weather meant the bars were heaving as young women dressed as if they were heading for their debs rubbed shoulders with young men dressed in improbably tight trousers and flat caps as if they were heading straight to the set of Peaky Blinders.
Dave and Rebecca Matthews were dressed in more sensible clothing and had come up from Swords. They missed the first two races having been caught up in a snarl of heavy traffic on the way in.
“We’re not big into the horses, really, and this is our first time at Fairyhouse,” Dave said. “But sure what else would you be doing on a Monday? I’m not looking forward to leaving – I’d say the traffic will be even worse on the way home.”
As to the couple’s prospects with the bookies, Rebecca admitted that she didn’t know a whole lot about the horses while Dave said he was more of an armchair fan than anything else. “We’ll back the horses a bit down the list, definitely not the favourites, though. I don’t know if that makes me a bookie’s dream?”
The champagne bar smelled more like curry chips than bubbly, and had the air of a wedding that was coming to an end.
Sitting on a tall stool watching events unfold was Anthony Dunne. “We live just over the way in Ashbourne and we always come over for the day,” he said. “We came in early and we’re very experienced. There’s some out there dressed more for Love Island than this weather,” he said.
“I’m not a big gambler and I’ll wait for the big one. I think Good Time Johnny is going to win it. And there’ll be a lot of people having a good time tonight if he wins.”
He didn’t. Good Time Johnny had a pretty bad time of it, all things considered, and was one of eight horses to be pulled up as the Grand National progressed.
Of the 20 runners and riders that started the race – considerably fewer than normal due the early Easter and the heavy going – only 10 finished, with J Slevin winning his second Irish Grand National on Intense Raffles, who held off the challenge of Any Second Now to triumph at Fairyhouse. Minella Cocooner finished in third.
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