DERMOT Weld s feat in landing a second Melbourne Cup is a remarkable achievement.
To send a horse 12,000 miles to win Australia s most famous race took some doing and to do it twice makes it even more astonishing.
What a thrill to see a smiling Dermot Weld being interviewed immediately after the race.
He let it be known that when he saw his two horses at the head of the posse entering the straight it was the type of stuff that dreams are made of.
"Weld s stunning training feat put him among the shrewdest in racing history" The Racing Post tells its readers.
Dermot had two runners in the race they were first and second favourite in the betting which shows you how highly thought of and respected Dermot Weld I Down Under.
The favourite, Vinnie Roe won four group 1 races weighing 461kgs. The horse lost weight on the long trip down under.
Dermot has got the horse back to within 2 kgs of his optimum racing weight and he finishes fourth (winning £52,817), being beaten just over three and a half lengths. You can guess yourself how the horse would have fared at the correct weight.
As Dermot Weld said after the race, it was Media Puzzle s day. He won a massive £871,479.
He told Mike Dillon of Ladbrokes immediately after the horse finished fourth in the Doncaster St. Leger two years ago that this horse would be his next Melbourne Cup winner. Media Puzzle was ridden by Damien Oliver, Australia most popular jockey. Damien s elder brother, Jason was tragically killed in a riding accident the previous week - their father suffered the same fate in 1975. Jason s funeral took place the day after the Melbourne Cup. So you can imagine the way the crowd felt after the race.
Well done Dermot Weld, one of racing gentlemen.
He saddled Teach Dha Mhile to win one of the first two year old races run in Killarney. The horse went onto win group races both Ireland and Italy. Dermot has saddled more flat race winners in Ireland than any other trainer. Long may he continue to saddle winners he has already done so in four continents and he has ridden a winner in the fifth. What a CV!
Tragedies that stunned us all
THREE tragic events recently shocked us all. First there was an earthquake in Italy that killed 26 children and three adults, including a teacher in the small town of San Giuliano di Puglia.
What a shocker for families concerned and the community as a whole. This is a tragedy that will never be got over by the bereaved families.
Secondly there was a fire on board a train travelling through from Paris to Vienna one night last week killing 12 including two children. Those who died were probably asleep and the driver didn t realise anything was wrong a sad way to die.
Lastly there was the plane crash in Luxembourg last Wednesday in which 18 died. The plane crashed in thick fog, bad weather is blamed for the accident which should never have happened. Surely the plane should have been diverted to a safer landing area.
Louis the great: Every O Toole picture tells a story of its own
I MUST say that I was really fascinated by Louis O Toole s landscapes which are currently on display at the Frank Lewis Gallery in Killarney.
The exhibition of his paintings was opened by the present Mayor of Kerry, Michael Healy-Rae who literally brought the house down with a couple of hair-raising true stories relayed with gusto at the opening ceremony last Tuesday.
Seldom would you visit a gallery where every painting is an eyecatcher but that s currently the case in the Frank Lewis Gallery. Every one of Louis O Toole s paintings will definitely hold the viewer in awe.
You see Ross Castle through a falling shower and it holds you spellbound, seeing it as you have never seen it before in all its glory:
Tennyson s words come to mind as they did when I first saw the painting in the company of Peter and Karie O Toole.
"The splendour falls on castle walls And snowy summits old in story The long light shakes across the lakes And the wild cataract leaps in glory" Light features magnificently in a wooded walk that you d love to down tools and walk through. The detail in Louis s paintings of the waterfall (O Sullivan s Cascades) captivates you as it did Michael Healy-Rae at the opening. This is the dearest painting on view at 1,800 a real gem and worth every cent of the price.
The paintings are on view at the Frank Lewis Gallery all this month. Make sure to visit there and view them at your leisure. You ll enjoy the experience that s for sure.
It's rock n roll but not as we know it
AN e-mail from Peter Cavanaugh who lives in the state of Michigan, USA, brought me the news that he now reads my column on the internet.
"Hi Finbarr" he wrote, "I just noticed that The Kingdom has a website and thought I would send a quick hello. Now I can read your column fresh off the press each week . A sign of the times we are living in instant communication is here to stay.
Peter Cavanaugh was here in Killarney this summer. He presented me with a copy of his book: "Arock n roll History . This is quite fascinating read especially for the rock n roll fan.
Peter has met them all from The Beatles down and has been right in the thick of the fray since the beginning.
A few odds and ends in the book fascinated me. I was really taken by the account he gave of his early Catholic education which coincided very much with my own experience on the subject. Here is an extract:
"The era of Catholic education stressed a highly structured, excruciatingly well-defined philosophy regarding matters sexual in nature. Even the word "Sex" was never openly uttered other than in extremely hushed tones and then only after the boys and girls had been separated for frank discussion of "certain private things."
"The tight confines went along these lines: To have brief impure thoughts was a venial sin. To willingly enjoy impure thoughts let along engage in impure acts was a Mortal Sin.
"Both sins could be forgiven if fully confessed to a priest who was empowered by God to grant penance and absolution. If you died with venial sins unforgiven, you d need to spend a certain amount of time in a place called Purgatory before finally going to Heaven.
"Think of it as waiting at Detroit Metro in mid-January for a flight to Hawaii with a blinding blizzard delaying all planes. Every venial sin one carried would be six more inches of snow and another 12 hours in the terminal. A Mortal Sin, however, brought a far, far darker fate.
"Death s arrival with an unforgiving Mortal Sin damning the soul would mean burning in the raging, searing, blast-furnace, blow-torch fires of Hell for all eternity".
That extract should bring back memories to many of my vintage.
I also liked his piece on Newgrange which will be in the news again shortly when the shortest day of the year comes along. Here is the relevant piece:
"The village of Slane i forty five miles northwest of Dublin. On its ancient castle grounds have played The Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, and U2. ON the Hill of Slane Saint Patrick proclaimed Ireland to be Christian in 433AD by lighting a paschal fire. The burial chamber at Newgrange is on the banks of the River Boyne a few miles to the east. It is over 5,000 years old.
"The Newgrange chamber is a huge circular man made mound of white and black boulders, largely covered with earth and grass. It measures 240 feet across and is 44 feet high. An entrance overlooks a broad bend in the river. A narrow tunnel leads 70 feet down into the earth. Passage is slow.
"A central chamber contains three rooms, all openly facing into the centre. Water has never penetrated into the surrounding rocks. Construction was by master architects. It was built for the ages. The spiral; markings are everywhere. Their meaning is unclear.
"A small opening over the entrance is aligned so that the sun rays penetrate and illuminate the chamber with a fiery red glow only once each year at the exact point of the Winter Solstice. It is seen as a symbol of rebirth and renewal. The effect lasts less than twenty minutes".
Now you ll have an idea as to what will be happening in Newgrange shortly.
So there you have it two interesting extracts from Peter Cavanaugh s book. Peter was a local DJ and met them all.
