Inside Track: Frank’s horse survives a bump on way to big Leopardstown win

Frank Lynch shipped a fair few bumps in his football career. Fair to say he administered some as well in his days in the Geraldines, Louth and Leinster jerseys.

And he was involved in a fair few ‘stewards’ inquiries’. That was in his time as Louth County Board chairman, a post he filled for three years in the late 1980s into the 1990s.

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Reports of foul play would come in to the Board every so often, and as the one with overall charge, he’d have to preside over meetings at which the miscreants and the sufferers would make their case.

Racing is Lynch’s main sport now, though there’s very few who’d have enjoyed Louth’s Leinster final win as much, given that he was on the last team before this year’s to win the provincial crown before going on to take the biggest prize of all. He’s one of five togged out on All-Ireland day 68 years ago, still with us.

Many good horses have carried his red-and-white colours over the years, Political Policy and Fantastic Flyer among them. None, however, would have been as good as the one he now has in training.

Happy Pharoah, said by the experts to be bred in the purple, has several 1s in front of his name, the latest earned at Leopardstown on Saturday, when the first card of two on the prestigious Champions’ Weekend was decided.

Ridden by Paddy Harnett, and trained by the youngest in the O’Brien dynasty, Donnacha, Happy Pharoah got the better of Light As Air at the end of a protracted struggle, crossing the line a head in front.

However, soon after the principals pulled up, a Stewards’ Inquiry was called. There had been a lot of bumping between the pair inside the final furlong, thus the reason why the stewards wanted to mull over a recording of the race.

The results of inquiries are usually posted within five minutes or so; but this one went on for upwards on a quarter of an hour, and that, no doubt, led to a lot of anxiety among connections of both horses. At stake was a first prize of €88,000.

You can only imagine the joy there was in the Lynch and O’Brien camps when the announcer said there would be no change to the result.

Happy Pharoah, a 9/1 chance, had chalked up another win, and according to a report in a trade paper the following day, it may not be the gelding’s last. “Looks the type to go to even better,” it said.

Your writer was hoping there’d be another Louth winner on the card. Well, not really a Louth winner, but one shared by the counties, this one included, where members of a syndicate are based.

Independent Expert was a runner in the final race on the card, and though among the outsiders, was quietly fancied. “Should give a good account of herself”, according to a whisperer.

She didn’t, finishing 9th. No consolation that it was a big field, and that a stable companion won the race.

As you expect, Aidan O’Brien won the big prize of the day, the Champions Stakes, with Delacroix, and for good measure also sent out the winner of the final English Classic of the year, the St Leger, on the same afternoon.

On the following day, at The Curragh, another of the O’Brien clan, Joseph, trained the winner of the Irish St Leger, cementing the family’s place at the top of the racing tree.