The CTBA Irish tour continued with
a trip to trainer John Oxx's yard, including driving over to the Curragh
to watching the galloping. John was very thorough in all his explanations
and generously spent a good part of his morning with us.
Then we met with Pat Kelly, the superintendent
of the Curragh course. He explained the history of the various gallops
and how each was handled on a day-to-day basis. The peat course was distinctly
different and well marked. The polytrack was very similar to the Cushion
Track at Hollywood Park, according to trainers Doug O'Neill and Juan Garcia.
The actual racing surface never has horses training over it except in special
instances where a trainer will pay a fee of around $300 dollars per horse
and work over the track after the races. We were informed that was quite
unusual.
Next we headed for another great lunch and
the seminar with the leaders of the Irish Thoroughbred breeding and racing
industry.
The lunch itsself was hosted by the Irish
Thoroughbred Marketing group led by Michael O'Hagan. The first graduating
class of the Darley Flying Start School for aspiring horse racing industry
students also attended the lunch, so we all were able to visit with these
young people on an informal basis. We were all amazed at the enthusiasm
of these graduates. One graduate, Dan Blacker, will be joining Richard
Mandella's training operation at Del Mar this summer. The next class includes
a girl from Fallbrook, California!
The seminar was a complete description of
how both the racing and breeding industry is managed in this country. Speakers
were Joe Osborne, with the Darley Stud operation; Jim Kavanaugh, director
of the Trainers association; Keith Row with the RACE school, which stands
for Racing Academy Centre of Education; and Neil Walsh, who represents
Horse Race Ireland, which is comparable to our Jockey Club and racing associations
put together.
We presented Michael O'Hagan with a personalized
signed copy of CTBA board member Bill Nichols's new book, "Seabiscuit,
the Rest of the Story," as a token of our
appreciation for the effort they took to explain how the administration
of breeding and racing works in Ireland.
Later in the day we attended the evening races
at the close by track called Naas. This was our first experience
with Irish racing. The track serves a great trackside "BBQ" and the
racing was great fun. Several of our folks actually figured out how
to bet and made some money. |
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The afternoon seminar
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Pat Kelly, Doug'Oneill, Shirley
Kimball, tour director Doug
Thomson and Martha Miller look
at the polytrack gallop.
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Juan Garcia, John Oxx and
Doug O'Neill
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John Oxx's yard.
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