Ambassador off to flying start at races
THE new American Ambassador to Ireland, Thomas C Foley, got off to a flying start yesterday at his first Leopardstown race meeting, with a €20 win on the feature race of the day.
A delighted Mr Foley told the Irish Independent he had "truly enjoyed" his first Christmas in Ireland. He was accompanied by Bill Durkan of Durkan Homes, the major sponsors of yesterday's card, which had a total prize fund of €254,000.
"I've actually been here since October and Ireland is a great place," said Mr Foley. "I am having a great time here at Leopardstown. It's a great day and I had the winner as well," he smiled, showing off his betting slip.
Also in attendance was the British ambassador to Ireland, David Reddaway, who performed the honours at one of the parade-ring presentations.
Knighthood
Mr Reddaway will be presenting an honorary knighthood to U2's Bono in the new year in a ceremony in Dublin. Bono and his wife Ali Hewson turned heads at Leopardstown, as did The Edge with his wife Morleigh.
In the parade ring, there was pure delight for the winning family syndicate that owns Schindler's Hunt, who pulled off a fantastic win in the €100,000 feature race of the day. There were scenes of jubilation as the Byrne family from Tullow, Co Carlow, celebrated with their hero horse and jockey Roger Loughran, who made no mistakes about the winning post this time.
The jockey took a very careful look over his shoulder before daring to celebrate his win following his widely publicised mistake at the finish two years ago.
Roger got a hero's welcome from the seven Byrne brothers and two sisters who own the brave chestnut who chalked up the biggest win of his racing career for his trainer, Dessie Hughes. However, there was disappointment for trainer Tom Taaffe, whose Glenfinn Captain suddenly crashed out with jockey Barry Geraghty on board while they were leading in the top race.
Delighted
Meanwhile, one jockey who delighted many punters without even being on the course was Ruby Walsh, who won the King George at England's Kempton Park in great style. "Good ol' Ruby, he saved my day anyway," said one man, who threw away a handful of useless tickets.
Leading lady trainer Jessica Harrington was in great form after scoring a win for her stable. "It's great to get on the scoring card already. It's a fantasic day's racing, there's a great crowd here and the weather is okay as well," she said.
A crowd of some 18,011 enjoyed the racing at the opening of the four-day Leopardstown festival. Attendance was down some 300 on last year's figures, but there were also strong crowds at race meetings in Limerick and Downroyal. While Bono and The Edge stole the show in the celebrity stakes, among the politicians at Leopardstown was veteran race-goer Charlie McCreevy, Government Chief Whip Tom Kitt and Senator Eddie Bohan.