Lossiemouth winning at Fairyhouse© Photo Healy Racing
A great weekend’s racing was somewhat overshadowed by the awful news that Champion Jockey Jack Kennedy is going to miss most of the rest of the season once again through injury.
The 25-year-old has now broken a leg six times in eight seasons riding which, even by national hunt jockeys’ standards, is extraordinary.
Ruby Walsh, another jockey who had more than his fair share of injuries, only broke legs three times in his career and they were spread over 18 years.
At this stage you would have to question if there is something else at play here for Jack besides simply bad luck.
Only last Tuesday I was wondering what he was doing riding a rank outsider in a beginners chase at Tramore, particularly as the horse had fallen on its previous start. I don’t think too many other Champion Jockeys would regularly take those sorts of risks.
Jack Kennedy’s biggest supporter Gordon Elliott said at Fairyhouse: "It's heartbreaking obviously for poor Jack to break his leg again. It puts a dampener on the day, but that’s the game we’re in."
I wish Jack a speedy recovery from his latest setback, but would also hope he becomes a little more selective in the horses he rides when he does return to the saddle.
Changing the subject, the crowd that paid into Punchestown for the Mogiana Hurdle a week ago with the expectation of seeing State Man clash with Lossiemouth must now be feeling that a stone bruise robbed them of a most memorable day out.
Punchestown’s loss was Fairyhouse’s gain as Lossiemouth produced a scintillating performance in the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle on Sunday. Beating Teehupoo easily in a slowly run two and a half mile race may not scream Champion Hurdle, but the way things are shaping up in that division she may not need to improve at all to lift that crown in March.
The withdrawal of Lossiemouth the previous week at Punchestown got me thinking about how unusual horse racing is compared to other events people attend.
When it comes to horse racing, racegoers regularly receive an inferior product to the one that was advertised, but there is no comeback.
Aside from the Morgiana Hurdle where almost every paying customer was expecting to see State Man race against Lossiemouth, a few days later a decent crowd turned up at Thurles for a significantly better than average midweek card. But shortly before the first race commenced there were a host of withdrawals that completely changed the complexion of the advertised day’s racing.
The featured €26,000 conditions chase ended up a lopsided match with Fil Dor going off an unbackable 1/40 favourite to beat a mare 30lbs his inferior. Not exactly what the punters had paid to see.
Weeks out from the Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Newcastle the racecourse’s marketing team was active on social media promoting the reappearance of Constitution Hill in their big race and no doubt many racing fans would have booked their tickets for the event in the anticipation of seeing the former Champion Hurdle winner make his much anticipated return.
On the day the audience had to settle for Constitution Hill’s stablemate Sir Gino putting on a show in the Fighting Fifth as the original star billing missed his intended engagement.
Imagine paying to see your favourite band in concert and when you get to the venue a tribute act takes to the stage. You’d have cause to be a little peeved off, but when it comes to horse racing you just have to accept it as part of the game.
Of course even when the big names do take to the stage they don’t always perform to the best of their ability. Mystical Power is a case in point from last week, he never travelled in the aforementioned Fighting Fifth Hurdle and was beaten so far from home that it simply couldn’t be his true running.
I remember thinking around this time last year that it was as if Willie Mullins had two separate stables. Some horses he was running were flying and winning easily, while others were running miles below expectations. This season seems to be starting in the same vein for the Champion Trainer. Maybe it has a lot to do with the ground.
