Never mind the Galway Plate. The real feature at the Galway festival is the Fianna Fáil plate, an event which is run over several courses and is one of the most sought-after prizes in the Irish racing calendar, writes Frank McNally
Competition for the plate is invariably fierce - tables are booked months in advance - and entries are expensive. Even at the knock-down rate for last night, guests paid €2,250 for a table of 10, and the price rises to €3,500 today. But the prize is considerable.
The least of this is what's on the actual plate: last night the choice of entrées included "honey glazed roast leg of lamb, stuffed with smoked bacon". More importantly, the plate is garnished with the presence nearby of half the Cabinet. And the ultimate reward is the chance of a few honey-glazed words in the ear of the Taoiseach himself.
There was some disappointment for gourmets when the dessert of "Banoffi Bavarois" was served with fresh strawberries, and not gooseberries, which are currently in season (at least among colour writers) and seemed the obvious choice.
But apart from that, the atmosphere in the Fianna Fáil tent was one of relaxed bonhomie, from an open-shirted Jim McDaid to a chain-free Mayor of Dublin, Royston Brady.
The only hint of straitened economic circumstances was that, when Bertie Ahern left the safety of the tent for his regulation walkabout on the racecourse, he was accompanied by Ray MacSharry. Like the grim reaper, Mac the Knife followed the Taoiseach everywhere.
Ominously too, the current Minister for Finance was absent, which somehow only heightened fears of the MacSharry-like Budget that awaits us.
But the gloom was quickly dispelled when, as the Taoiseach watched from the stands, a horse called Sum Leader won the second race on the card. Mr Ahern confirmed he had backed the horse without even checking his form. And before anybody even mentioned the possibility of a leadership challenge, John O'Donoghue quipped: "By the way, I backed him too."
Back in the tent, where questions about anything except the holidays and the wedding were off the menu, the Taoiseach rejected criticism over the latter event's being held in France. Both his daughters were "ferociously Irish", he insisted, and this was reflected in Georgina's plans for next week: "The dresses are Irish. The cake is Irish. Everything that could be Irish is Irish." Apart from dashing Jacques Chirac's chances of a late invitation ("Not a hope"), the Taoiseach was giving little away.
But he was even more expressive than usual on the subject of his daughters. Before France, he will spend a few days in Kerry with Cecilia. And, apropos of nothing, he added: "The girls are very close to me. No matter what happened over the years, they've always been very close."
The Taoiseach's family was represented yesterday by his niece, Aileen Breen. But most of those in the tent were from the extended family known as Fianna Fáil: members of the Cabinet, programme manager Gerry Hickey, master fundraiser Des Richardson, and supporters like restaurateur Dan McGrattan, who was accompanied by RTÉ newsreader Anne Doyle. Asked about the identity of others in the tent, party sources eagerly pointed out a "world-famous oncologist", Dr Marty Murphy, originally from Mayo, now based in the US.
Today on the racetrack, the feature event is the Galway Plate. But competition for the Fianna Fáil plate also gets under way in earnest. Entries are expected to include a number of builders.