Presenting Percy winning the RSA last year© Photo Healy Racing
Way too much is being made of Presenting Percy lining up in the Cheltenham Gold Cup without having raced over fences for a year. That's not the problem. There's a much more serious issue. It's his name. Seriously, how can a knob joke end up on the most luminous roll-of-honour in National Hunt racing - and stop sniggering down the back!
Yes it's a giggle in a giddy boarding school kind of way. And owner Philip Reynolds can at least be credited with linguistic neatness considering the horse is by the Derby winner Sir Percy out of a Presenting mare. Maybe even the fact Presenting Percy is British bred subconsciously encouraged this 'fnarr-fnarr' element.
But this is the Gold Cup roll-of-honour. It contains some of the greatest names in the sport, evocative enough to conjure all sorts of grand images. It's about Prince Regent, Kauto Star, Cottage Rake and the ultimate of all, Arkle, as indestructible in myth and folklore as the Sutherland Highland mountain he's named after.
Admittedly not all Gold Cup winners carry names as grandly windswept. Fortina conjures up memories of an old wheezy Ford. Sizing John always makes me think of a JCB's for some reason.
But it's not a question of grandiosity either. Best Mate helped conjure a familiarity with the public and while Davy Lad's owners were hardly up all night pondering his name it does at least have a certain jauntiness. Even The Dikler makes sense if you take your mind out of the gutter towards the Gloucestershire river the 1973 hero was named after.
None of them arouse the sniggering mental images that Presenting Percy's moniker does. Maybe we should just be grateful that George Strawbridge didn't decide to call his 1995 Epsom Derby third Pointing - or that the pedigree doesn't include Porcelain.
So as wonderful as the horse is, and how Reynolds himself seems a likeable character, and considering it's hard not to admire Pat Kelly's dogged refusal to play the bullshit game, decorum might just be their greatest opponent. It's like Slap And Tickle joining Sea The Stars and Nijinsky on the Derby list. It's unthinkable!
Compared to that, not having run over fences in a year is a piece of, ahem, cake.
In fact in terms of unorthodox preparations it can be argued Pat Kelly threw more curveballs last season, running a novice in a three and three quarter mile handicap chase on just his third start over fences before reverting to hurdles at Gowran. More than a few eyes were thrown to heaven about that. Yet the horse never missed a beat.
Presenting Percy exuded wellbeing on his hurdles comeback last month and looked plenty sharp enough considering it was six weeks to the festival. If Kelly feels he needs to get his eye in over fences a searching racecourse school should serve fine. At the very least it leaves less room for risk than having had him line up in the Bobbyo at Fairyhouse on Saturday.
Sure it's an unconventional route to take to the Gold Cup. But the circumstances of freakish winter conditions have largely dictated that. And on the basis that different doesn't mean the same thing as wrong it may be no harm to shake convention up a bit - yes, maybe even to the extent of getting a knob joke into racing history!
As for concerns about Presenting Percy having had a single racecourse spin this season it's worth keeping in mind how traditional ideas of the route to Cheltenham have been transformed in recent years. Slowly building up through a series of recognised trials has become optional, sometimes by necessity, as shown by the impact of ground conditions this winter, but often by choice.
Once again Sunday's Naas action was billed as a 'Festival Trials' programme and at the risk of tempting fate its relevance to what happens at Cheltenham in just over a fortnight is likely to be marginal.
Navan the previous weekend used to represent a meaningful opportunity to race some genuine festival contenders. It's place in the programme would seem to make it a good fit. Maybe The Ten Up winner Chris's Dream will boost its credentials in the RSA. But Tiger Roll turned what looks a perfect Stayers trial in the Boyne Hurdle into a Grand National warm up.
It's a different set-up compared to when predefined preparations were essential if a horse was to pitch up ready in Cheltenham. Annie Power won the Champion Hurdle off a single run in an egg and spoon race three weeks before. Quevega routinely never even got that. That impacts on the local programme. But in Cheltenham terms a less than busy run-in hardly represents a major issue.
It borders on heresy this time of year to refer to flat racing but it was interesting to see last week how the Minister for Agriculture, in reply to a question about cost overruns on contracts with his department, outlined how he is "aware of a projected cost increase on a capital project under the aegis of Horse Racing Ireland."
He added: "This project is partially funded from private sector contributions and I am assured that it will not result in any additional call on capital funding from my department."
Obviously this is in relation to the Curragh and equally obviously the cost increase is of significant public interest considering the financial stake the state already has in the redevelopment.
An original cost estimation for Irish racing's biggest ever capital project was €65 million. That quickly rose to an acknowledged €72 million before public acknowledgements dried up when the rumour train started talking €80 million and beyond. Sure enough weekend attempts to get an up to date estimate foundered against an attitude of let's wait until the thing's built before totting up the bill.
If that smacks of the hullaballoo over the controversial new Children's Hospital project at least the figures are still in millions rather than billions. But at some stage the tot will be done and then comes the task of justifying it in terms of public engagement. On the upside though, having driven by recently, it will be an eye-catching Pied-a-terre for a few people at least.
Finally, some people have got very exercised at Racing TV's recent coverage of the sport here. To which it's hard not to say 'D'oh!' At the risk of flippancy, who would have thought it: a company owned by British racecourses putting their own tracks first: whatever next? Sunshine in summer?
Anyone paying attention had to know this was the risk of this lucrative media rights deal. Irish racing took the money. It took it because domestic TV coverage is only a tiny financial cherry on top of a deal that's all about betting shop pictures. Regrettably, public engagement and public profile are, and always are, a long way down its list of priorities.
They still are, no matter how much dudgeon flies around. All this indignation is just noise compared to its real worry which is the bleak outlook for betting shops everywhere. That has the potential to hit where it really hurts come 2023.
