A trip down memory lane

I spent last Saturday morning doing a much needed cleanout of my home office. A lifetime’s worth of horse racing related stuff to be sifted through.

Hundreds upon hundreds of useless documents, service agreements and contracts that should have been shredded years ago, but also plenty of little gems that I had long forgotten about.

Treasured Letters and Racing Memories

One really sweet letter I came across was from Ann Murray, wife of broadcaster Colm Murray. Ann was writing to tell me how much both herself and Colm had enjoyed a recent Cheltenham Preview night I had organised to raise awareness and funds for Motor Neurone Disease research.

The letter included this sentence: “Colm is delighted that the punters did so well on the night with some of the great offers, extracted from Ladbrokes! Particularly on the 10/1 on Willie Mullins to be the leading trainer.”

Colm loved his racing and punting and certainly knew a bit of value when he saw it. That Preview night was held in February 2011 and less than one month later Willie Mullins bagged the Leading Trainer award at the Festival for the very first time.

Another interesting item I found was the souvenir race card from the 1991 Budweiser Irish Derby. This glossy A-4 magazine style race card (priced at £1.00) included a forward from Brigadier Waller, the then Senior Steward of the Turf Club.

Following the recent debate about the watering down of the supporting card on Irish Derby Day 2025, it was interesting to read the comments of the Senior Steward 34 years ago: “Anheuser Busch have once again sponsored all the Races on the card, which has been increased in importance by including a Group Two mile race which was previously run at the Phoenix Park, as well as the Curragh Cup which we hope to build up in prestige until it can stand alongside the traditional long distance Cup Races run in England and France.”

And he didn’t even bother to mention the Railway Stakes, which was already an integral part of the Derby Day offering back in 1991.

Old race cards like this are always fun to browse through and this one was no exception. It included full page adverts for bookmaker Sean Graham and Dunhill cigarettes and smaller ads for other well-known bookmakers at the time Pat O’Hare and Joe Donnelly, Polo One restaurant in Molesworth Place, Dublin 2 (which some readers may remember), and another for the purchase of Body Protectors that were approved by the Irish Turf Club and Jockey Club in Britain and were “compulsory for N.H. jockeys and Event Riders” (but seemingly not a requirement at that time for Flat jockeys).

The Irish Derby in 1991 was a six runner affair with a total prize pool of £600,000, which saw Generous beat Suave Dancer.

Luke Comer’s Barry’s Run collected £12,000 for finishing last in that year’s Derby. He ran a total of 34 times in his career without ever winning a race.

An advert in the 2003 Leopardstown race card for Hennessy Gold Cup Day caught my eye: “Open a Tote account today and receive a free bottle of Hennessy Cognac.” No strings attached, no deposit required and you received the bottle straightaway.

Beef Or Salmon, ridden by Timmy Murphy, won the big race that day (the first of his three victories in the contest). Four-time winner of the Hennessy Gold Cup, Florida Pearl, was also in the line up, but was pulled up before the last by Barry Geraghty, while the other riders in the five runner affair were Norman Williamson, Paul Carberry and Ruby Walsh.

Solerina and Barrow Drive won the other two Grade One races on what was a cracking card at Leopardstown, long before the Dublin Racing Festival became a thing.

Whip Rules Creating Cross-Border Complications

Changing the subject, Colin Keane is not surprising making a splash in his new role as number one jockey to Juddmonte, with three high-profile winners at Sandown last Friday and Saturday supplementing his recent big race wins aboard Field Of Gold at the Curragh and Royal Ascot. He will, however, have to be mindful of the different whip regulations in Britain as it looks likely Friday’s victory on Windlord will see him required to serve a 14-days suspension in the coming weeks.

The British whips rules almost caused a right old mess in Ireland last week when Dylan Browne McMonagle was declared to ride three horses at Roscommon on Monday and had a further four mounts scheduled at Tipperary the following day despite being suspended.

Joseph O’Brien’s number one jockey picked up a three-day suspension at Royal Ascot, but it seemed to have slipped his mind when it came to the dates on which he couldn’t ride.

Fortunately someone at the BHA spotted the error in the nick of time and informed the IHRB on the morning of the Roscommon meeting and Browne McMonagle was replaced on his intended mounts at both meetings.

Oisin Murphy Narrative

Finally, it is remarkable how the details surrounding Oisin Murphy’s car crash altered so much in the space of just over two months.

In the early hours of Sunday 27 April police attended a road traffic accident near the village of Hermitage in West Berkshire and found a car driven by Murphy had gone off the road and hit a tree. According to the police report both occupants of the vehicle received medical attention at the scene and the driver (Murphy) had been under the influence of alcohol, but failed to cooperate with their request to give a breath test sample and was arrested. It was also stated that the female passenger in the car had sustained “serious injuries” and was taken to hospital.

By the time the case was heard in court last week at Reading Magistrates, Murphy’s failure to give a breath sample turned out to be little more than a “misunderstanding between him and the police officers” according to Richard Atkins representing the Crown Prosecution Service and that charge was dropped.

Then, most surprisingly, when passing sentence, District Court Judge Sam Goozee told Murphy it was “lucky that neither you nor your passenger nor any member of the public was injured in the crash.”