Here at SportsJOE we’ve selected the best events we’ve attended in person during 2014. Sean Nolan broke his duck at Fairyhouse in April…
To my eternal shame I had never been to Fairyhouse on Easter Monday for the Irish Grand National. Leopardstown at Christmas, Derby Day at The Curragh, plus countless other notable racing days had been ticked off the bucket list but the big one had always been squeezed out of the schedule by something or other.
Falling as it did on a Bank Holiday, after a long weekend, which you almost certainly have to work in our business, Easter Monday was a day reserved for catching up with everyone else, if you were lucky to have it off.
But work assigned me to be in Fairyhouse for the Grand National this year and it turned out to be the sporting highlight of the year.
For a start, the weather was glorious, and surprisingly warm for the end of April. That coupled with a bumper crowd – over 16,000 – made for a carnival atmosphere but all the talk was about one man; Barry Geraghty.
The Meath man had been having a wonderful few week across the water. At Cheltenham he had nabbed the Champion Hurdle, the RSA Chase and the World Hurdle and at Aintree he had won the Liverpool Hurdle. But one race that had somehow eluded him was the Irish Grand National. Born just down the road from Fairyhouse, Geraghty had an English National under his belt (Monty’s Pass in 2006) but his home National never fell right for him.
However, with Geraghty having a golden spell and with AP McCoy suspended for the meeting after Aintree officials took a dim view of his whipwork, it was the local boy who slipped into the saddle of Jonjo O’Neill’s favourite for the contest Shutthefrontdoor.
The history of favourites in such a volatile race was appalling, with the last fancy to win being in 1999 but as the day wore on, more and more money piled into the satchels for Geraghty.
Sentiment is rarely a useful emotion in the betting ring but it seemed half of Meath was putting money on Geraghty so I joined in the fun, a Model man an honourary Royal for the day. OK, the fact I had collected a couple of handy winners courtesy of Willie Mullins earlier in the day also helped me part with my cash.
At 5pm, still bathed in sunshine, the race went off to a huge roar, even by the standards of a showpiece race.
The first lap was, as you might expect, leisurely enough and as they rounded the stands the cheer for Geraghty was the clearest indication yet that the majority of the those in attendance, bar the bookies, were backing Barry.
Three from home Dessie Hughes’ Golden Wonder led but Geraghty was looming aboard Shutthefrontdoor and he coaxed seven-year-old home by three-quarters of a length to win the National.
The roar was cacophonous, the sprint for the payouts was even more impressive but many, myself included, headed straight for the winner’s enclosure. It was there, when the horse and jockey returned, that the decibel levels really escalated.
It felt like a profoundly local win, like being at the county final of a place not your own, but you couldn’t help but be swept along with it as the win was wildly celebrated.
It was so wild that the next race, a Grade 3 Mares Chase, was delayed by five minutes. But just under six minutes later, the place went nuts again as Geraghty piloted Une Artiste home by half a length in a thrilling finish.
It was that sort of day. A magic day.
