The big race on day two at Galway was won, interestingly, by a filly called Hint of a Tint. In certain west of Ireland accents, a tint is temporary residence made of canvas and sometimes used for political fundraising. But there's no hint of that sort of tint in Galway any more.
So the tint that the winner of the Topaz Mile was named after must have been one of the colourful variety, as applied to hair or eyelashes.
On the other hand, the horse had some seriously high-rolling connections, redolent of Galways past. She was owned by Sue-Ann Foley, daughter of JP McManus, and trained by David Wachman, husband of Kate Magnier. They can hardly have needed the money. Even so, they were collectively €72,000 better off as a result.
It takes all kinds of bank balances to make a Galway Festival, however. And among the happier people in Ballybrit yesterday evening were two young men from Loughrea, Micheál Naughton and Willie Kelly, who punched the air as a horse called Empresario won the second race at 12-1. The lads had secured slightly more than that on the tote, so their fiver each had turned magically into €75 each. They couldn't have been more delighted.
Classic win
As trainer
Matthew Smith
said in the winner’s enclosure, Empresario “wasn’t doing a stroke” for much of the race, apart from “having a good look around him”. But he’d given Smith, who trains only a handful of horses in
Kilmessan
, Co Meath, his first win in Galway.
And he was a hero to the lads with the fivers. It was a classic win for the small man.
Somewhere between them and the McManuses on the high-rolling scale were the victors of the third race. The man doing most of the cheering there was Noel Hayes snr. Equally pleased, if quieter, was his son, Noel Hayes jnr, who confessed to owning “a leg” of Now or Never, which had been trained by Michael O’Callaghan, a Curragh-based Kerryman, who owned another leg.
The Hayeses were from Banagher, which was proving how hard it is to beat . . . again. But as Noel jnr said, the winning filly had “cost plenty” (£42,000). So if payback wasn’t as urgent as Now or Never’s name suggested, it was no less welcome.
Racehorse training appears to be becoming a young person’s game. The aforementioned Smith is 33 and he was an old hand compared with O’Callaghan, who’s a mere 26.
Rollercoaster era
There was a special presentation between races to
John Moloney
, veteran manager of the racecourse, who bows out this year a month short of his 65th birthday. Moloney has been in charge for 26 years, a rollercoaster era that began modestly, survived the
Celtic
Tiger and the hangover that followed and is now in recovery.
He was presented with a photographic collage depicting highlights of that eventful quarter of a century, which comes to an end on Sunday. In the meantime, he will preside over his final Galway Plate today.
It used to be the tradition that the Taoiseach would present the plate to the winning owners, but that was back when politicians and helicopters were about equally plentiful at the Galway Races. They’re both a bit scarce these days.
And as if to confirm that the meeting is above politics, today's prize will be presented by President Michael D Higgins.
