The ground was "soft to heavy" for the start of the Leopardstown post-Christmas meeting, and after the excesses of recent weeks this was a fair description of many of the punters, too.
But a visit to the south Dublin track in December can be an opportunity to get back into shape. On a day like yesterday you can lose weight just trying to stay warm. Throw in the regular sprints from the parade ring to the track, with detours to the betting counters, and an afternoon at Leopardstown can be as good as an aerobics class.
No doubt motivated by such hopes, a crowd of 16,700 signed up for the St Stephen's Day programme. And if nothing else, most of them went home with lighter wallets because when it comes to picking winners, the going proved as hard yesterday as ever.
Only one favourite of the seven obliged, a situation which was exacerbated when a 20-1 no-hoper won the Move Over Butter Handicap Hurdle to put jam on the bookmakers' afternoon.
Nevertheless the bookies were not quite laughing all the way to the bank. Although the attendance was almost 500 up on the same day last year, the trackside betting of £1,079,558 was £124,000 down. The Tote's £376,319 also represented a fall on 1999, albeit by a mere £85.
The Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy, who was in attendance as usual, appeared unworried by the signs of a slowdown in the economy. But his Cabinet colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Joe Walsh, was a perfect example of the consumer caution reflected in the figures; confessing "a little punt" (£10) on the day's only reliable favourite, at odds (4-7) skinnier than the winning jockey.
The horse in question, Knife Edge, took the feature event and a first prize of £39,000 for owner J.P. McManus. That was as good as it got for favourite-backers, although some of the other winners were well supported; including another McManus horse, World Wide Web, which took a long time to download before catching the favourite in the dying strides of the last race.
By that time many of the crowd had succumbed to the hot ports, hot whiskeys and hot beef sandwiches. Hot dogs had attracted queues at the fast-food counters, too. Racegoers may have a further chance for post-Christmas penance today, however, if racing goes ahead following a morning inspection.
