The Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, probably summed up the Galway Races experience for many this week. When I asked him what he was backing for Wednesday's Galway Plate he explained with a smile: "Well, I was standing there in the pelting rain and the wind, not knowing the first thing about the horses, and I decided there was only one runner for me - Headbanger. So I backed him." Alas, Headbanger - who is owned by Beatrice Durkan - was the unlucky number 13 and was nowhere to be seen at the finish.
Bertie, who was down in Galway with Celia Larkin, claims not to have missed the Galway Races in the 25 years since he was first brought to the races by his good friend, Tony Kett. Former Taoiseach Albert Reynolds, who was joined by his wife Kathleen and his daughters Cathy and Emer and his daughter-in-law Erika Reynolds, had better luck in the betting stakes; he had five winners in the first three days.
Other people congregating in Fianna Fail's Ballybrit Suite were Minister Jim McDaid; TDs Joe Walsh, Seamus Brennan, Noel Dempsey and Frank Fahy; the Doyle Hotel Group's general manager John Glynn, and Sean Mulryan, owner of the Galway Bay Country Club.
Renault's Bill Cullen and Jackie Lavin took a table, as did horse owner, J.P. McManus, and auctioneer Fintan Gunne whose two sons, Pat and Andrew, were ebullient hosts. Ged Pierse from Pierse Construction was there, as was Johnny Ronan, also in the construction business: Johnny came along with his wife Gillian and Sharon O Buachall. Catherine Condell was there on Thursday, and went on to celebrate her 40th birthday with a big bash that evening. Chanelle Burke was also celebrating an anniversary - her 21st birthday was held in her castle home on the shores of Lough Corrib on Friday. She was joined by her boyfriend, jockey Tony McCoy who, despite riding the punters' favourite, Shanagarry, in the Plate on Wednesday, was beaten at the finish by Paul Carberry on Stroll Home.
Thursday was the day of the Moons Best Dressed Person competition and the judges Peter O'Brien of Rochas design house in Paris, fashion journalist Alannah Weston and Caroline Barwell of Harpers And Queen ploughed through pouring rain and distinctly unstylish mud to find a worthy winner.
Their choice was Pamela Brangan, who wore a Vivian Tam dress and a widebrimmed straw hat she had trimmed herself, is a model from Brittas in Co Wicklow who is now working with the Ford agency in New York. Brangan managed to take in the races on a trip home to attend her good friend Anna Barry's wedding. Anna, who works at TnaG, was married last weekend to fellow gaelgoir Sean Pairceir, an investment banker with Chase Manhattan.
Anyone who was feeling a little lonely strolled over to the Blazers Suite on Friday. There Sigrun Massmann, a German woman living in Killaloe for the last 10 years, held a select party to launch her new introductions agency, Elite Introductions. Sigrun, who is recently separated herself, plans to bring the elegant unattached of Galway, Clare, Limerick and Cork together - she is not aiming for a clientele of lonely farmers: her agency is exclusively for professionals and business people.