RACEGOERS ARE doughty folk. Minor matters such as gale force warnings wouldn’t put them off a day at Punchestown. And so, despite the heavens opening and the wind threatening to hurtle their cars across the road, they still queued to get into the racetrack at lunchtime yesterday for day two of the national hunt festival.
They finally emerged from their cars to be told that the races would go ahead, but the two chases would be abandoned as the chase track was waterlogged. So no Gold Cup or Guinness Handicap Steeplechase to look forward to. And no opportunity to indulge in some retail therapy, as the tented shopping village was also closed.
The weather also put paid to planned visits by President Michael D Higgins and Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney. Undaunted, some 11,500 racegoers battled on, 5,000 fewer than last year.
Hospitality guests included a contingent from Google Ireland and what appeared to be the entire population of Longford in the county’s GAA supporters’ pavilion.
Heather Manson and Morag Cunningham of the Prince and Princess of Wales Hospice in Glasgow were with a group of hospice supporters. “It’s horrendous,” said Manson, shivering. “But anyway we’re here and we are going to get into a nice wee cosy box and enjoy it through the window.”
The closed Mr Softee ice-cream van was a lonesome sight but a small child still peered up hopefully to see if there were any 99s to be had.
Ice-cream was not on the mind of retired newsreader Anne Doyle, who thought about wearing Wellingtons but opted for a sensible raincoat and hat instead. Then the hail came down.Things were sinking fast, so it was appropriate that Dawn Leadon-Bolger was wearing a hat with links to the Titanic. She bought the hat, which was in the film A Night to Remember, on Ebay for more than $200 (€151) and was determined to keep it on her head despite the wind whirling around her.
Horses are in her blood, so she comes to Punchestown every year. “I’m a diehard fan. I just wish I had come yesterday instead.”
But the weather certainly suited Willie Mullins’s yard. The trainer had the winners in four out of the five races, including a rare first, second and third in the Irish Daily Mirror War of Attrition Novice Hurdle. “I don’t think I’ve ever done that before,” he said.
And he followed it in the Betchronicle.comINH Flat Race with a win with Champagne Fever, this time ridden by his son Patrick. The jockey also won the last race of the day for his father with Flash of Genius.
Former footballer Niall Quinn was also having “one of the best days ever” at the races. Nobody believed the races would go ahead but as soon as people arrived they got into the spirit of the day. “And fair play to the jockeys. I think today, of all days, I was glad I was a footballer. To go out there and ride out there must be incredible.”
Quinn was there with friend and former Sunderland manager Steve Bruce, and insisted there were no hard feelings following Bruce’s sacking.
“I was on Sunderland’s board at the time when Steve was sacked. People thought that we’d fallen out but we’ve a friendship stronger than that.”
It was Bruce’s fourth time in Punchestown. “It’s a shame about the weather but we’re surviving,” he said.
Whether Punchestown would carry on today was up for debate last night and will be decided by a course inspection this morning.Betfair was quoting odds of 3-1 that it wouldn’t go ahead.
