Usually it's St Stephen's Day when the hordes of once-a-year racegoers descend on Leopardstown's Christmas meeting, but not this time. Last night the course manager issued a plea for people to come extra early today because if they wait too long they could be faced with a closed gate.
"We are expecting in excess of 20,000 customers and I strongly advise them to come early, certainly from a parking point of view. The gates could be closed after the first race. It's a Bank Holiday Monday anyway, plus there is huge interest in Florida Pearl's race," said John White.
It will be a switch around on the normal Leopardstown pattern, but that pattern was blown away on Saturday when gale-force winds and rain sent strong men running for cover and wise men for the television remote control.
The St Stephen's Day crowd, at 14,300, was down almost 2,000 and left White rueing the elements. "It had to happen on that day. I would say the weather took 5,000 off. Otherwise we would have reached the 20,000," he said.
Nevertheless, £721,472 was bet with the bookmakers on Saturday, as well as £274,518 with the Tote, while yesterday a new course record for the Tote was set with £420,429. Yesterday's attendance of 17,575 also bet a total of £1,115,628 with the bookies.
A significant amount of that was wagered on the 8 to 1 winner of the featured £117,000 Paddy Power Chase, the English-trained Calling Wild. Typically, though, the sponsor's bank manager will not be making an anxious phone call on Wednesday morning.
"It was an exceptionally good result for us. Nuzum Road Makers was our big loser. If he had won we would have faced paying up to £110,000," said Paddy Power managing director Stewart Kenny. Nuzum Road Makers showed the same sort of speed as most other Irish road makers and finished seventh.
Wylde Hide finished runner-up in the big race, but his owner, J P McManus, had the sort of bumper day that makes bookmakers think of alternative employment.
There were even reports of sightings of the legendary gambler making a rare foray into the ring before his horse Shannon Gale ran in the third race. The horse had not run for two years - since December 27th, 1996 - but still made all the running to beat his 15 opponents easily. Shannon Gale was a 10 to 1 shot, but some bookies could be seen nursing some rather bruised satchels afterwards.
Three other horses owned by McManus also won, including the Cheltenham prospect Joe Mac, who landed the Future Champions Novice Hurdle under Charlie Swan. Named after the Limerick hurling great Joe MacKenna, who won an All-Ireland medal in 1973, the winner is now only 7 to 1 for the opening race of the Cheltenham festival in March. His namesake accepted the winning trophy on behalf of McManus.
Today, however, the spotlight will fall on the Ericsson Chase at 2.40 when the unbeaten Cheltenham Gold Cup favourite Florida Pearl has his first run of the season. Pitted against him is the top English horse Suny Bay, as well as Dorans Pride and Boss Doyle.
The appalling prospect of a closed gate for such a hot race should ensure a bumper crowd arrives in plenty of time.
