How to take the roughy with the smoothy

Two centuries of Irish history collided in the first race at Ballybrit last night, when a horse called Ocras Mor could finish only third behind a well-fancied winner, The Posh Paddy.

The result was entirely predictable.

There are lots of posh paddies at Galway these days, many of them happy to fork out €150 for a bottle of Dom Perignon 1996 in the Champagne Tent. On the other hand, ocras of any kind rarely gets a look in, given a range of dining opportunities that extends from hot-dog stands to four-course lunches in the corporate marquees.

Moira Dardis-Leech remembers when it was different. A 75-year-old from Kinnegad, she's still sprightly enough to invade the pitch at Croke Park, as she did last weekend when her native county won the Leinster Final after a century of trying. But she has been attending the Galway Races since "either 1945 or 1946" and has seen some startling developments there, too.

Amazingly, it appears the festival once managed without a champagne tent. "There was a bar over there," Moira says, pointing at the stands, "and that was about it."

The crowds were a lot thinner, but so was hotel accommodation, so during one of her first festivals she slept in a car. Yet she thinks the races were more enjoyable then: "Everything was a treat at that time." Nobody would accuse Bertie Ahern - who arrived here yesterday - of being a posh paddy, although he did back the horse in question, to the tune of €50. Maybe it was a tip from an insecure Cabinet member, because the Taoiseach made it clear that horses were all he would be discussing with colleagues.

"If they want to give me good tips, I'll listen. Anything else, no." There was "not a hope in hell" that the Cabinet reshuffle would feature in conversation with Ministers, he added.

So with the reshuffle not on the menu, guests in the Fianna Fáil tent had to confine themselves to other issues. As chance would have it, punters were also enjoying TV coverage of racing from England, where last night's meetings included one at Beverley. But obviously, you couldn't be talking about Beverley in the Fianna Fáil tent either.

Luckily, the Baked Darne of Orange Roughy - one of the two main courses on the dinner menu - broke the awkward silence. Even posh paddies admitted they had no idea what roughy was (a fish from New Zealand, apparently).

And there was relief that the rest of the menu was more, well, smoothy: from the Salmon and Dill Terrine with a Lime Mayonnaise Nested on a Summer Salad to the Three-layered Mousse with Strawberries, Fresh Cream and Rum Chocolate Sauce. None of your two-layered mousses here.

Outside the tent, the many punters who cleaned up on the opening race included Christine Kelly, a clinical nurse manager at St James's Hospital in Dublin and seasoned Galway-goer ("I was late getting down, but I phoned the bet in"); and Maureen Joyce, a local from Cluainfada, a first-time festival visitor benefiting from beginner's luck. After The Posh Paddy, however, it was mostly downhill for favourite backers.

But whether you had money on it or not, the result of the night was probably in the fourth race, won by Palace Star with 17-year-old Rory Cleary on board.

The jockey's older brother, Sean, died in a fall at Galway last October. And their parents, Tom and Kathleen, were in the winners' enclosure last night for Rory's triumphant return, a result Tom described - with fine understatement - as "very important for the family".