If Dessie O'Malley were a horse, he'd be the subject of a stewards' inquiry about his recent run of form, writes Frank McNally.
Retired from politics and apparently out to pasture since last year, he caused a major upset (for the opposition anyway) when landing the top prize in the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development Handicap Chase earlier this month, worth €116,000 net of tax.
Yesterday, on his latest outing, he watched his political racing syndicate scoop another €24,000 tax-free, when the 25-1 no-hoper Arctic Copper finished second in Punchestown's feature event, the BMW Steeplechase.
True, he only owns one-seventeenth of Arctic Copper and was joined in the celebrations by other syndicate members including Sean Barrett and GV Wright. But when the PA said "winner all right," we knew exactly who they talking about.
To cap this, the former PD leader pulled off a betting coup when cannily backing Limerick Lad - what else? - in the Champion Novice Hurdle. The race was won by roaring-hot favourite Back in Front, at odds so thin as to be prohibitive. But the two-legged Limerick Lad had taken advantage of a betting-without-the-favourite offer from the bookmakers, and won when the four-legged version finished second.
"He didn't let me down," commented the terror of the bookmakers, as he inflicted more damage on the profession in the same month he persuaded half the country to back the winner of the English Grand National on the Late Late Show.
Dessie O'Malley aside, however, the winners yesterday were mostly bookies. Reports of their demise after the Cheltenham Festival were probably exaggerated, but the first day of Cheltenham's Irish equivalent confirmed their return to rude health.
The first two favourites fell; the third - the odds-on Moscow Flyer - violently parted company with his jockey; and the fourth pulled up. When a favourite finally obliged in the form of Back in Front, not even his long-time fan Michael Lowry thought the short odds worth the risk of a wager, although he was in the winner's enclosure to welcome the horse back.
Also in the winners' enclosure yesterday was the Minister for Finance, Charlie McCreevy. But in line with current straitened economic circumstances, he was keeping his hands in his pocket. At least until the penultimate race, before which he confided that "there's a mare in that, one of [trainer John E.) Kiely's, that has a bit of form".
The contest in question illustrated the risks of backing horses. Despite being a flat race, it produced the biggest pile-up of the day, with no fewer than 11 horses crashing out in a freak incident. But Kiely's mare - Reine des Reines - avoided the carnage and justified her favouritism to confirm Mr McCreevy's shrewd judgement.