IRISH RACING IMAGE TARNISHED AT THURLES

The big story that emerged during the week was the farce at Thurles on Thursday afternoon when hot favourite Alcapone was disqualified for taking the wrong course.

David Casey, who partnered the Mouse Morris-trained 4/5 shot, has decided to appeal against the two day ban imposed for his error which did the image of Irish racing no favours having been beamed into the betting shops both here and in Britain.

After the second fence the six remaining runners in the opening chase on the card went the wrong side of a marker pole and all the riders, except Casey on the front-running Alcapone, realised their mistake and elected to turn back to go round the doll.

At the time, the case in the stewards room was straight forward ? Alcapone and Casey had to go handing the race to market rival Delphi Lodge, who finished a distance adrift under Barry Geraghty.

But as Casey explained leaving Naas racecourse on Sunday afternoon there is more to this story. 'The way the track was marked outon Thursday was very misleading for the riders. Not just at Thurles, but at several other tracks a running rail would sort out a lot of problems.'

'We (the jockeys) have been asking for things to be done at Thurles and several other tracks for over a year now but nothing has been done and that's why I'm appealing.'

J.P.McManus also hit the headlines on Monday 1st January when he added another couple of strings to his ever-expanding ownership bow. Forking out a substantial sum, reported in some quarters as high as #650,000, he acquired Gold Cup favourite First Gold and leading novice hurdler Baracouda.

These two rising stars of jump racing will stay in training with French ace Francois Doumen and his son Thierry will continue to ride both horses. First Gold is as low as 7/4 for the Cheltenham highlight while Baracouda, quoted originally as favourite for the Stayers' Hurdle, is likely to go instead for the Sun Alliance Hurdle, the second day opener at the March NH Festival.

Contrary to some newspaper reports over the weekend that were tinged with more than a hint of jealousy, I am all in favour of the McManus spending spree.

After all when you think back not so long ago when racing was suffering here because of a deep recession, it was the likes of Mr McManus who kept his good horses in training here rather than sell them to wealthy cross-channel owners.

For many, including yours truly, he kept the Irish Cheltenham dream alive every March and good luck to him now.

The inquest into the Leopardstown fall of the mighty Istabraq in the AIB Agri-Business December Festival Hurdle gathered momentum earlier in the week when trainer Aidan O'Brien confessed his NH stable-star will not be asked to race on very testing ground again.

The ground at the Dublin track was atrocious and Charlie Swan believes this contributed to Istabraq suffering his first fall out of twenty-five outings over the smaller obstacles.

Roll on the AIG Champion Hurdle on January 21st and hopefully the triple champion hurdle hero will get back on the winning trail en route to another assault on Cheltenham in March. BF