Tony McCoy’s final attempt to win the Cheltenham Gold Cup is firmly centre-stage today with a consequent spotlight too on his boss, JP McManus, whose horse, Carlingford Lough, at least has no idea of the weight of expectation on his back.
That leaves one man in the Carlingford Lough camp firmly in the wings, a low-key role for the man charged with the actual responsibility of preparing one of the leading contenders for National Hunt racing's 'blue-riband,' but one which suits John Kiely ideally.
In fact even the wings might probably be a little too close to the limelight for his liking.
Where some trainers might resent their central task being relegated to support status compared to the relentless attention on McCoy’s long goodbye into retirement, or the eternal fascination with McManus’s readiness – or not – to punt his horses in the ring, Kiely will thank his lucky stars for the comparative anonymity.
Attention-seeking is not the 77-year-old Co Waterford trainer’s style.
Some of his colleagues might also resent the role racing managers such McManus's trusted advisor Frank Berry can assume but for Kiely it appears to be a blessing.
“Whatever Frank says,” has been his preferred tactic during this Gold Cup build-up, neatly deflecting media enquiries away.
Senior figure
Except that reluctance to play the public game risks one of the most fascinating stories at Cheltenham 2015 getting overlooked: it might flirt with ageism to point out how Kiely is the senior figure among the trainers involved in today’s Gold Cup but it’s relevant in pointing out how he is one of the few to ride out their big-race hope on a daily basis.
An accomplished amateur rider in his youth, he still cuts a fit figure, riding work on Carlingford Lough at his small 20-box stables yard near Dungarvan.
“I ride him all the time. You couldn’t have nicer – that’s why I ride him!” he quipped.
Riding work used to take place alongside his fellow septuagenarian brother Paddy, another former jockey who subsequently trained Shuil Ar Aghaidh to win the Stayers Hurdle at Cheltenham in 1993, although Paddy called time on that work last year.
However despite holding a trainer’s licence for over 40 years, and producing a steady stream of big-race winners in Ireland from a stable kept resolutely to no more than 20 occupants, John Kiely has never before tasted Cheltenham festival success.
That he should now be challenging for the greatest Cheltenham race of all is a hugely popular fact for many within racing who have long since learned that when it come to patiently extracting the maximum from a horse’s ability, few can match the man who has modestly described himself as “a farmer who trains a few horses”.
None are fooled by the modesty. When Kiely fires a dart it rarely misses the board. A first ever Stakes runner on the flat last September yielded a Loughbrown Stakes success at the Curragh for Toe The Line.
Over the decades he has excelled at masterminding big handicap victories, including a pair of Galway Hurdle wins with Black Queen (1998) and Indian Pace a decade later.
And it was in the 2013 Galway Plate that Carlingford Lough secured the first big win of his career.
Nine tries
For a major Gold Cup hope with a hat-trick of Grade One victories under his belt, it is worth recalling how it took Carlingford Lough nine tries before first winning over fences. And that Plate came after scraping into the bottom of the handicap as a first reserve on the day of the race.
Hindsight makes him some certainty then but it is little wonder both McCoy and McManus continue to express their admiration for the steady improvement Kiely has engineered in the horse, up to and including winning last month’s Hennessy in a way that for many makes him Ireland’s best hope today, not the defending champion Lord Windermere or the Lexus hero Road To Riches.
One slight concern could be a relatively underwhelming display in Carlingford Lough’s sole festival start in last year’s RSA.
A blunder at the first fence seemed to set the tone for the rest of the race although Kiely volunteers: “He was probably a little bit immature that day.”
Career peak
In contrast the son of Kings Theatre now looks to be at a career peak, nine years old, the most successful age in the Gold Cup with 24 previous winners, and an age Carlingford Lough shares with Lord Windermere and the favourite Silviniaco Conti.
Come 3.30 today, that peak may provoke a perfect storm of attention which will swirl around McCoy. And for the quiet man to the side that will be just fine.
