The flock of English folk who’d travelled over for the first day of the Dublin Racing Festival were, of course, left disappointed when Saturday’s meeting was washed away. What did they do with themselves?
Well, RTÉ caught up with some of them at Leopardstown come Sunday to ask how they’d passed the time. One, who had the look a man who’d had a rip-roaring Saturday, couldn’t quite remember where he’d ended up, but there might have been a small clue on his cap: “Doheny & Nesbitt.”
The Leopardstown people were, no doubt, probably tempted to drown their sorrows too, but there’s always a chance of brighter days ahead. And Sunday, mercifully, turned out to be grand, so they got up and running.
Brian Gleeson roamed about the place armed with his microphone, looking for the chats, and who should he bump in to but Michael O’Leary, who had turned up with two of his (grown-up) children. “Racing won’t survive on old farts like you and me,” he told Brian, hailing the efforts of the sport to attract a younger crew. Although he noted that his ‘kids’ were swanning about the place downing free booze and grub, so he had some doubts about their actual interest in the racing.
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Brian pointed out that O’Leary had been a lesser spotted attendee at meetings of late, “too busy working”, came the reply. But the prospect of seeing his Brighterdaysahead take on her old buddy Lossiemouth in the Champion Hurdle had lured him back.
He wasn’t uber confident, though, about Brighterdaysahead’s chances, Lossiemouth, a bit like the DAA, being a formidable opponent. But still, he reckoned she was a bit special.
Brian: “If Elon Musk rings, is she for sale?”
Michael: “He couldn’t afford her.”
Turns out, Brighterdaysahead does indeed have the X factor, beating Lossiemouth by close enough to four lengths – which meant Elon would have to remortgage his SpaceX Starship to have any hope of purchasing her.
Brian caught up with a pair of O’Learys post-race, Michael and his brother Eddie, the Gigginstown House racing manager.
Had this success revived Michael’s interest in the sport? “Well, I was very busy with the Mullingar minis rugby section for about 10 years,” he said, his children having “all had the same talent as their father – useless”. So now that they’re grown-ups, he could indeed turn his focus back to the sport of kings and airline CEOs. Any way, “the only talent in this family is yer man,” he said, pointing to Eddie. “He’s well able to buy horses, I’m well able to pay for them.”
“Would you sell Brighterdaysahead to Elon Musk?” Brian asked Eddie. “He doesn’t have a rocket as good as her,” he said. Would he abandon Michael and work for Elon as his bloodstock agent? “I find it hard to handle one nut,” he replied, “I couldn’t handle two of them.”
It had proved to be quite a lengthy Sunday, it beginning around the 7.30am mark with the Australian Open men’s final. Well, okay, with a recording of the Australian Open men’s final and the phone turned upside down to avoid seeing final score notifications.
“That was video game stuff,” said our TNT commentator Nick Mullins of one especially stupendous rally, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic, well, serving up some more PlayStation stuff.
But once Alcaraz recovered from going a set down to take a 2-1 lead, there was a bit of an inevitability to the young fella winning out. “Alcaraz was one when Djokovic played in his first Australian final,” Tim Henman reminded us.
The dying of the Djokovic light? “You’re so young, like myself, so I’m sure we’ll be seeing each many more times over the next 10 years,” the Serb said to the Spaniard post-defeat. Adding: “Not!” So, we’ll see.
Henman had half a notion that this might have been Djokovic’s farewell. But when he’s still just that one Grand Slam victory away from a stand-alone record 25th title, you wouldn’t put it past him to try again.
Rafael Nadal watched on from the stands. “Too many Spanish legends, it felt like I was two against one tonight,” said Djokovic to his old pal. Nadal v Federer v Djokovic. Ah here, those were the days. But with this Alcaraz lad, a career grand slam at 22, maybe tennis has even brighter days ahead? Doubtful, mind.
