Frank McNally found rendering of Danny Boy suited punters weeping quietly into their drink
It was a day for the wearing o' the green at Cheltenham. But then again, so is every day. The English country set wouldn't be seen dead in any other colour.
Maybe there was an ancient law here that forced horsey people to blend in with the countryside, under pain of death, and the habit just stuck. Whatever the explanation, the shamrock sported by Irish punters yesterday got lost as usual in a sea of green tweed.
Even allowing for that, though, it was a subdued St Patrick's Day. Normally the climax of the meeting, Thursday is now the quiet part of the inaugural four-day event. So quiet that when an Irish horse finally won, in the fifth race, the reception was - and there's no other word for it - reserved.
The result was an Irish one-two, in fact. But English winners have sparked wilder celebrations here, and that's saying something.
As so often happens, it was the wrong Irish horses that won. If you'd backed the 1-2 forecast on the Tote - and trust me, you didn't - you would have earned £4,080 for your £1 stake.
Maybe the Cheltenham commentator knew something, because his pronunciation of the runner-up, Caisleán Uí Cuain, was suspiciously accurate. The horse's recent race record - 306000 - looked more like the prize fund for the Gold Cup than a recommendation of his chances, so learning to pronounce his name correctly would normally have been beyond the call of duty for a Cheltenham race-caller. This time the investment paid off.
After waiting all day for the chance, the racecourse radio station dug out an instrumental version of Danny Boy, by Eric Clapton of all people, to celebrate the win. It was an original choice, at least, and not inapt either. The song and Clapton's plaintive interpretation were the perfect accompaniment to punters weeping quietly into their drink.
Ireland won the last race too, bringing the three-day win record to a whopping seven. Unfortunately, the day's big one had gone a long way to reimbursing the bookies after Moscow Flyer. Baracouda represented the Franco-Hibernian alliance of trainer Francois Doumen and owner JP McManus, with a hefty bet from the latter making the horse one of the hottest favourites at the festival. But the result was 1798 all over again, as the combined Franco-Irish force finished a poor second to the English.
The bookies celebrated, and a string of well-wishers commiserated with the owner on his bad luck. "There's no bad luck," said JP, with the tough philosophy that got him where he is.
An even bigger cause for concern on national saint's day was the moral quagmire into which jockey Graham Lee is sinking. When the Galway man had his first Cheltenham winner on Tuesday, he joked with the BBC's Claire Balding that he had lost his festival "virginity". After his second, he told her he was turning into an "old tart".
Completing his hat-trick yesterday, he admitted he was now "a bit of a slapper", while the BBC woman wished him a continued descent into promiscuity. With a full day to go, God knows where the poor lad will end up.