Politics is very like a horse race with high rewards and potential heavy falls. A Grand National if you like.
On Monday night, Macra na Feirme, the young farmers organisation, organised a hustings for the candidates in East constituency, building their own grand national course for the candidates, meeting in combat for the first time.
Racing people will tell you that the greatest danger to a potential National winner is being brought down by another horse, perhaps even a stablemate.
From the larger parties they came in pairs; Liam Aylward and Séamus Kirk of Fianna Fáil; Avril Doyle and Maireád McGuinness of Fine Gael, Peter Cassells of Labour and Mary White from the Greens. Sinn Féin's John Dwyer sent apologies.
Special attention was being focused on Ms McGuinness and Ms Doyle who had not been seen together since the surprise candidacy of the host of Celebrity Farm and Ear to the Ground, was confirmed at a Fine Gael convention.
The course set for them by Macra was through the quagmire of farming politics, the land of single payments, nitrate directives, live exports and beef imports.
Macra members, who are the kindergarten wing of the Irish Farmers Association, were lying in wait at their own Bechers Brook, Chair and water jump fences. The candidates delivered a four-minute prepared script and then Macra president, Mr Thomas Honner, set loose his pack to harry, turn and course the candidates.
Mary White found herself ambushed on the issue of Patricia McKenna's opposition to live cattle exports. She did well to outline her own support for properly regulated live exports.
The Fianna Fáil team got a lot of criticism on the issue of the Nitrates Directive which will force farmers to reduce the levels of fertilisers they use. Liam Aylward suggested he could reveal more on the issue were he not a junior minister.
Labour's Peter Cassells kept stressing his rural roots, even though he had to admit that in his day, he had helped widen the urban/rural divide as a trade unionist.
However, it was Avril Doyle who turned in the most robust performance, warning the young farmers that Europe needed more than "L-plate drivers".
Maireád McGuinness seemed to think this barb was aimed at her novice status as a politician and she sought voter support on the basis that she was not a politician, but a journalist of 24 years standing. "I will call it like it is. I will shout it from the rooftops," she said.
Ms Doyle, however, urged caution. She said people with political experience were needed in Europe. She urged them to support "safety and experience". Ms Doyle ignored the time limit calls by the chairman in order to get her message across.
At the end of the evening when the tea and buns were being downed, consensus was that Ms Doyle came across as the Head Groom and Ms McGuinness as the new kid in the stables.
Like the Grand National, however, there is still a long way to run and the pitfalls are many.