Ireland's rugby players may be acclimatising well Down Under, but it's a different story for Ireland's big hope in next week's Melbourne Cup, the Willie Mullins-trained Holy Orders, which has been doing anything but gallop since he arrived 10 days ago.
Ante-post gamblers at Melbourne's Sandown track were shocked yesterday to see the horse digging his heels in and refusing to work. He was finally persuaded to canter for two laps, but only after staff followed behind on a ride-on lawnmower, cracking a stockwhip.
This came after four days in which Holy Orders refused to budge - in full view of concerned trackwatchers.
"Holy Irish terror" boomed yesterday's Herald Sun, the biggest-selling newspaper in Melbourne. "Holy mess" declared the national broadsheet, the Australian, in reference to the unprecedented "antics" on the training gallops.
Mullins revealed the six- year-old had played up at home before, but the Co Carlow-based trainer was sure the problems would pass soon. "He did it a couple of years ago, he sort of got into this humour but he got out of it again. I think it's just a stage he's going through."
Holy Orders, who last April beat the 2002 Cup winner the Dermot Weld-trained Media Puzzle, had been fancied by the local media to run a big race at 33/1. Praise however has turned to mirth with one local journalist commenting recently that the Irish horse had proved to be "obstinate, cranky and bone lazy".
