Sun shines on fake tans and punters share tips but atmosphere is flat in the champagne tent, writes ROSITA BOLANDin Ballybrit
THE SUN was unexpectedly hot yesterday on the second day of the Galway Races, but it was clear that many of the bare legs on show at Ballybrit had arrived pre-tanned. “Five out of five of us are wearing fake tan,” confirmed Lisa Ryan, who was there with friends Róisín Johnston, Una O’Leary, Joanne Murphy and Aisling Geaney. “At least three coats of it,” qualified O’Leary. “You look slimmer as well when you’re tanned,” Geaney explained.
One woman who had no interest in fake tan, fashion, or fascinators was Eimer Nic Cába, who arrived dressed in a monk’s brown habit, along with her friend Seán Mason, similarly dressed. “Just for the craic. To be different,” Nic Caba explained. They were starting to sweat in the heat. “But she’s sweating more than me, because her habit is 100 per cent wool, and mine is mostly polyester,” Mason pointed out gleefully.
On the day when the date for the presidential election was announced, Fine Gael candidate Gay Mitchell dutifully appeared in the parade ring. “It’s not my first time at the Galway Races, but I’m not a regular,” he admitted frankly, more or less acknowledging what every madra in the street knows: if there’s an election in the offing, you are all but obliged to turn up at Ballybrit to meet the people.
He was noticeably cautious on the subject of his chances. “It’s very early to say.” However, Mitchell did reveal that he’d considered backing Defining Year in the Topaz Mile, because of its name, which he is hoping will be an accurate description of how his own year will turn out.
Bertie Ahern turned up for his annual two-day visit to the races with his son-in-law, David Keoghan. “Let them at it,” was Ahern’s curtly succinct response when asked for his views on the upcoming presidential election and the contenders to date, before vanishing into the Hurdle Suite in the Killanin stand for a private function.
The first helicopter landed at 4pm. A few others followed, but only a few. The big champagne tent, capacity 550, only had a handful of tables occupied. “There’s no point going in there,” one crestfallen woman muttered to her friend as they looked in on a virtually deserted tent.
Winner of the first race was JP McManus’s Princeton Plains. The big race of the day was the Topaz Mile, with Stunning View taking the top prize money of €69,000 for trainer Dermot Weld.
In a huddle of concentration over their cards between races as they prepared to lay bets were sisters Mary and Rita Killeen, and their cousin Martina Tobin. “The great thing about Galway is that people are prepared to share their information,” Rita declared. “You might be standing beside a stranger in a queue, and they’d give you a tip. That’s what people mean when they talk about the ‘atmosphere’ at Galway.”
The final race was won by odds-on favourite, Catch the Eye, another Dermot Weld-trained horse, and owned by Noleen McCreevy, wife of the former minister for finance. Clearly thrilled, she could not stop grinning in the parade ring. “She’s my first baby to run,” she said.
How were the McCreevys planning to celebrate? “Charlie will want to go straight home.” And no, neither of them had bet on their own horse. “Charlie likes better odds.” As for the state of the country’s finances, all the former minister had to say was, “I’m out of public life now, and I don’t comment on these things.”
Anywhere there’s a crowd – and there were 17,510 of them – there are people trying to sell things which that crowd may never have considered they needed. The most esoteric item yesterday had to be the equine-themed toilet seats selling for €60. “I paint them myself,” said Alexis Kidd, from Banbridge, Co Down. By the end of the day, one had sold.
Somewhere out there, there is a proud owner of a toilet seat depicting huntsman and hounds on the lid, and a giant stag’s head with magnificently bristling antlers on its underside.