FF insiders cash in on phantom outsider

THE roar in the Fianna Fail tent when outsider Mystical City won the Galway Guinness Hurdle yesterday suggested that enough money was secured at odds of 20 to 1 to finance the party's next general election campaign. The party proved to be well in tune with the grassroots of Mountbellew in Co Galway where the winning owners, the nine member Phantom Syndicate, has its headquarters.

The race card helpfully suggested it seemed that the Willie Mullins trained horse "has plenty to find if she is to be successful here". She found it in a storming finish to win the £45,000 race, cheered on by a crowd of over 27,000.

A smiling Fianna Fail TD, Dr Jim McDaid, won enough on the big race to finance a week in Ballybrit and to cover his bus fare home to Donegal. The party's mystical adviser, Galwayman Gerry Rushe, was one of the syndicate. He is getting used to the limelight, ever since he was groom at one of the biggest weddings staged in the west of Ireland two years ago, which was attended by 1,100 guests.

The phantom proved to be one Oprah Winfrey, the world's highest paid chat show host, reported to be on her way from nearby Ashford Castle. Her name was on the lips of punters more than the most hotly tipped horses during what is still known as Ladies' Day. It was later confirmed that Oprah's Irish holiday had been cancelled at the last minute.

Galway Races and Moons department store in Galway, part of the Brown Thomas group, adopted political correctness this year for perhaps the most contested event of the day that to decide the "best dressed person". Male runners on the whole failed to match the performance of their female counterparts in terms of high fashion and outrageous hats. The best they could muster up was a panama, a boater or a trilby.

The winner of a £3,000 shopping voucher was Ms Nora Pat Stewart from Boyle, Co Roscommon. The win, she said, more than compensated for her husband Trevor's horse, Galletina, pulling a tendon in a race earlier this week.

There was true form with this win. Her outfit a navy and white dress with fitted coat designed by Phillipa May and straw hat with tiffany brim has already had two outings at Ascot.

Kenneth Long of Galway city, in a linen pinstripe suit and panama, struck a blow for the males by winning a special award. One of the judges, Clarissa Brooke Turner of Vogue, divided the attendance into the 70 per cent who were in jeans and T-shirts, and the 30 per cent who dressed up. In the latter category, she told The Irish Times, there were so many who "stood out like jewels". Galway can give Ascot a fair run for its money.