YOU KNOW that you’ve made it when the Cheltenham superstore is selling ducks named after you. Ruby Walsh, AP McCoy and Richard Johnson are all immortalised in the Cheltenham Collection ducks that were selling at the track yesterday morning at £50 for a set or £19.99 each.
And they were flying out the door, so to speak. Any jockey’s duck waddling a bit quicker than the others, inquired The Irish Times? “Oh that would be Ruby of course,” said Maddie from behind the counter. “No question about that.”
Conor Murphy definitely had all his ducks in a row on Thursday. Nicky Henderson’s stable employee from Cork was the talk of the Cotswolds yesterday for his £1 million win in an accumulator bet on five of the yard’s runners.
Reporters at the races had embarked on a fruitless search for a stable-hand wearing a Rolex and a full-length fur coat, until it emerged that he was being besieged by the media at the trainer’s yard in Lambourn.
Kevin Woods could only look on enviously. The Drogheda-based racegoer was one winner short of a jackpot on the previous day and was still wishing he’d backed Michael O’Leary’s Sir Des Champs.
“If I’d won I’d have taken my coat off because all the rich fellas like Michael O’Leary are walking around here with no coats,” he observed.
He was standing with friend Charlie McGrath, trying to estimate Lester Piggott’s age. The 77-year-old retired jockey was looking very dapper as he did a book signing alongside another veteran, broadcaster Sir Peter O’Sullevan.
People stood around looking at the duo and photographing them with their mobile phones as though they were zoo exhibits. “Lester’s not looking as good for his age as Peter O’Sullevan,” offered Woods. “Sure he murdered his body for 40 years on account of his height,” added his friend. “He starved himself to keep his weight down.” The festival had been an unqualified disaster for Irish horses, McGrath said. “But remember that the Irish don’t necessarily back Irish horses,” he added. “We might make a few bob yet.”
Bookmaker Mary Carty was also hoping to make a few bob. The Kells woman upped the glamour quotient among the bookies with her eye-catching lilac hat. “I was very good this year. I only brought four hats,” she said, adding there was no truth in the rumour that she was opening a Twitter account for her hats.
The bookie was looking forward to watching Ireland beating England in the rugby on the boat home today, to compensate for the thrashing Irish trainers got in Cheltenham.
But it was all about Kauto Star and the Gold Cup yesterday. So there was huge disappointment when the horse was pulled up early and the fairytale ended. Spectators gave him a rousing round of applause as he bowed out of the race.
Instead the race centred on the men with the initials – JP and AP – and the horse Synchronised who brought them to the winners’ podium. It was the second win of the day for Limerick’s JP McManus, with both horses steered to victory by Northern Irish jockey AP McCoy. JP would later enjoy a third win in the last race, courtesy of Bellvano, with Paul Carberry in the saddle.
But AP knew it was going to be his day. “I said to the boss this morning, I said, today is the day,” the jockey said afterwards. “I just felt it. Maybe I was getting my confidence back or something but I felt like something was going to go right.” You had to believe JP when he said he was “very, very excited”, as the quiet Limerick man is not given to displays of wild emotion. Synchronised was bred by his wife Noreen so the connection goes back a long way.
“It is a very special day, a very special moment. It gives everybody a great lift.”
And AP’s wife Chanelle was very relieved. It had been “all picture and no sound” at home in recent days as the winners failed to materialise. “Now he’s really proved that he still is absolutely the best rider out there.”
Ruby Walsh’s duck had better watch out. AP will be flying out the door ahead of him after that performance.
