IF the cheers for Istabraq's SunAlliance success on Wednesday contained more than a share of financial relief, then the roars that greeted Ted Walsh as he returned with his Elite Triumph Hurdle winner, Commanche Court, yesterday were spontaneously heartfelt and raucous.
Walsh, renowned for his direct performances on television, received the most direct possible demonstration of the affection he is held in by the racing public. The occasion of training his first festival winner may not have halted his famously fluent tongue but his tear filled eyes spoke just as eloquently.
"I'm an emotional oul git behind it all," Walsh grinned broadly.
Commanche Court, who Walsh bought in France last year for prominent financier Dermot Desmond, confounded all those who thought he would find the fast ground too much of a barrier by gallantly running up the gruelling final hill under Norman Williamson to beat Circus Star by a length.
In company with his wife, Helen, and four children, Walsh returned to three cheers from the massed enclosure and admitted: "I'm going to get some mileage out of this. The only thing that could make this better is if my son Ruby, who led the horse up, had been on his back, but Norman rode a great race.
Desmond wholeheartedly agreed and added: "I could become addicted to this," but it was Walsh who was the centre of attention. "I rode four winners here but this is a far greater thrill," he said.
"I never thought this moment. I would come and I honestly thought the ground would be too quick for him. Norman said the horse didn't, jump as well as he can today and still he won. It's wonderful," Walsh said.
Williamson had been inclined to agree with Walsh's pre race assessment after the first three hurdles, but then Commanche Court, winner of the Austrian Derby last year, began to relish the challenge. "I hadn't been happy at all but then we got a run through the field and I was very lucky to have all the fancied ones in front of me on the turn in. Class wise this horse could be anything. He could be a Stayers' Hurdle horse of the future," the Co Cork born rider said.
Almost inevitably, though, the last word went to Walsh when he was asked how much Desmond had paid for Commanche Court. The wolf grin flashed again and he quipped: "It was the price of a good car definitely not a Lada!"
It was a blank day, apart from that, for the Irish, plus an expensive one, as Celtic Lore, but especially J. P. McManus's Tidjani were the mediums of hefty gambles in the traditional getting out race, the Vincent O'Brien County Hurdle.
Both were in contention in the straight but faded behind Richard Dunwoody's mount Barna Boy, who held off the fast finishing Carlito Brigante by a length.
Karshi came back from the dead, after looking beaten at the top of the hill, to beat Anzum and Paddy's Return in the Bonusprint Stayers' Hurdle.
Uncle Ernie sprang a 20 to 1 shock in the Grand Annual, but in a meeting where punters suffered more than their share of uppercuts, the well backed Sparky Gayle provided a welcome buffer in the Cathcart Cup.
