A fine crowd of 16,221 braved the chill at the start of Leopardstown's Christmas festival yesterday, but typically it was the bookmakers who left with a warm glow inside.
Just one of the seven favourites obliged, and the punters' uphill battle was emphasised when Florida Light, an unconsidered 66 to 1 shot on the Tote, won the last leg of the jackpot to provoke a mouth-watering £36,548 jackpot carryover to today.
The feature race, the £50,000 Denny Gold Medal Novice Chase, provided a summer echo of rich and glamorous flat racing from winner Native Upmanship, owned by John Magnier, but the £25,000 Juvenile Hurdle provided solace for the romantics.
Calladine beat the JP McManus-owned favourite, Yeoman's Point, and gave a much-needed career boost to his young Co Dublin trainer Steve Mahon and jockey Eddie Callaghan.
The horse was having his first race over hurdles and it was also Callaghan's first winner since returning home from England over a month ago to continue his career here. Callaghan (25), who used to ride the top English horse Dato Star, wasn't alone in celebrating his success.
"His agent told me a few days ago that he can't sell Eddie, but I told him he'd be able to sell him after today," smiled Mahon. "There's been a lot of criticism of Eddie but you don't criticise someone who has ridden 130 winners. I've stuck by Eddie and he has stuck by me."
Mahon's good fortune in securing Calladine was emphasised when he revealed how he bought the horse.
"He beat one of my horses at Dundalk in November and I rang up to slag Jim Bolger, who trained him on the flat. He said I should buy the horse," said Mahon, who was coy about how much Calladine cost. "He won £16,250 today so he only has a small bit to go to get it back!"
Sentiment, however, doesn't pay the bills, and the majority of the crowd left with lighter pockets having helped the bookmakers secure a £1,203,976 turnover for the day.
That was up almost £500,000 on 1998, and the Tote turnover was a first day record with an aggregate of £376,403, up over £100,000 on last year.
The stiffness of the task was emphasised by the presence of the legendary gambler JP McManus, whose green and gold colours were carried by four favourites, all of whom were beaten. The nearest he got to a success was with his highly-touted newcomer Risk Accessor in the last race.
At least he finished a place better than Arctic Copper, who was third in the opening race. The syndicate that owns the horse includes the Minister for Health, Brian Cowan, his Cabinet colleague Jim McDaid and the former leader of the Progressive Democrats, Des O'Malley.
They were consoled with trainer Noel Meade's report that: "He's a decent horse and he will win more races."
The Leopardstown executive were yesterday happy to celebrate the first day figures.
The new general manager, Matt Mitchell, said: "We are very encouraged with the almost 2,000 increase in attendance on last year and it augurs well for the next three days. We're expecting a dry week which will culminate in the appearance of Istabraq on Wednesday."
It's just a case of surviving financially until then.
