Inside Track: Fifi’s fans in full voice as Washington hits the Heights
Inside Track with Joe Carroll
The shouts were loud and clear at Dundalk Stadium last Friday night: “Come on, Fifi,” and “Ride him out, Fifi,” they roared.
Fifi is Shane Gray, the Dundalk-born jockey, who, right now, is on top of his game. He is based in Thirsk, in Yorkshire, and has just put behind him one of his best-ever seasons, riding 55 winners.
Many of those winners have come in the past month. He rarely has a full book of rides at a meeting, usually confining himself to North of England. But he has been making the best of his opportunities, riding for a number of top stables.
On Friday night he brought up winner N0 56, steering the favourite, Washington Heights, to victory in the valuable Mercury Stakes, one of the most prestigious races on the Dundalk calendar.
The horse is trained in England by Kevin Ryan, who has regularly called on Gray’s services. The Irishman had two in the race, worth €42,000 to the winner, and it must have given him immense satisfaction as he looked in on telly seeing his charges fight out the finish. A third English raider, This Moment, trained by George Boughey, took third.
The race was over the minimum 5 furlongs, and timing his run to perfection, Gray hit the front inside the final furlong. But before getting the verdict, Washington Heights had to repel the late challenge of stablemate, Ain’t Nobody, a neck dividing them at the line.
It must have felt like old times for the jockey when he came back to the winners’ enclosure. There to greet him, giving him a rousing reception, were members of his family and, of course, those who’d been most vociferous on the grandstand a few minutes earlier.
It was like that when Gray rode at the track soon after it opened in 2007. He was apprenticed to Fozzy Stack in Co Tipperary, at the time, and rode several winners in front of the home crowd. He was always guaranteed a good reception.
Friday night’s race was underwritten by Bar 1, the Dundalk-headquartered bookmaker firm, which is also Gray’s sponsor.
Though it’s probable Washington Heights, which went off at 9/4, was a loser for the bookies, this would have been one winner Bar 1 chief, Barney O’Hare, wouldn’t have minded paying out on. He made sure there was a place on the podium for members of the jockey’s family.