Colonel Maximus at Cork

Colonel Maximus had a run in a 2 mile hurdle down in Cork on Easter Monday as the long winter continued. The snow was replaced with constant rain which wasn't going to do his chances any good. Eric Roche was on board a club horse for the first time since I joined. He's another new name to me and he had a tough ask to get a tune out of a horse described as "..not one of the stables leading lights..". You can see horse, handler, jockey and club members pre race in the picture below by Michelle Fleming. As the race began, he was prominent but as it went on he looked like he was struggling with the pace and the ground and was off the bridle from 5 out then pulled up before 2nd last. Gordon wasn't there to run the rule over him, he was busy saddling 13 of the 30 runners in the Irish National at Fairyhouse. He completed a national hunt grand slam by winning the biggest steeplechase in Ireland with General Principle ridden by JJ Slevin. The prize money takes him further ahead of Willie Mullins in the Trainers championship with about a month to go. At the other end of the horse racing spectrum, it's been a tough few months for the club with not even a horse placed in quite a few races since the run of the year. It doesn't look like we have a mudlark among the club horses although new horse Scealai Aonair was due to run at Leopardstown on Wednesday and Gordon reckoned she'd a chance but the rain meant the meeting was abandoned. Still we wait for the better weather which will mean better ground and hopefully a flurry of winners and I'm there to witness some of them.