After her return to winning ways, the members of the Gordon Elliott Racing Club were looking forward to the possibility of an entry for Smiling Eliza at the Galway Festival. Gordon duly obliged with not one but three entries for hurdles, flat and, intriguingly, over fences. At this stage she has won a maiden hurdle, a 3-Y-O hurdle and a handicap hurdle but previously when she got up to the 120 rating she struggled so maybe it was time to send her chasing. She has been schooling well at home and was given bottom weight which meant she was carrying about a stone and a half less than most of the other 17 runners in this 2m 2f race.
The build up to the race was great. Firstly, there were 19 requests for tickets and that usually means not everyone will get one as there's usually a limit. My name was down for one anyway. It's about an 8 hour round trip from where I live in Northern Ireland (near Down Royal) to Galway in the west of Ireland but I was all for driving down in the afternoon to see the club star begin her latest adventure and driving back home again after the racing. My mates had read my blog after Eliza won at Cork and wanted to know when she was running again so I gave them the low down on the race too "Smiling Eliza runs today at Galway. It's on RTE 2. First time over fences...small each way chance". Most of them have no interest in horse racing but a couple do and one was on the continent on holiday but he was blocked from all UK and Irish online bookies (I had a similar experience trying to put a hopeful bet on Liverpool against Barcelona in the second leg when I was in Portugal). Another friend advised that he could get on BetFair when he was on holiday so he tried that and it worked. He was on Eliza. The anticipation was building. The craic was good amongst us about her chances. "If she's ridden near the front she has a great chance" I predicted. The more we talked her up the more I also wondered how she would get on first time over fences. I was in work waiting to hear if I'd a ticket and was planning to leave about midday. Then I got lumbered with something urgent that I knew straight away wasn't gonna be done in a couple of hours. I still wasn't sure if I'd get a ticket anyway so didn't matter but then Alex posted that she had indeed got tickets from Galway for everyone who requested them including me. This made me feel awful. I really wanted to go but the chances of me getting away in time to get down to Ballybrit for 6 o'clock were very, very slim. I tried to get as much done as I could but had to concede defeat about midday and offer my ticket to the other club members going.
It turned out I didn't even make it home in time for the race but I got it recorded and watched it without knowing the result. She got a mention from Ted Walsh in the preliminaries "She takes her chance today". As the horses all moved as one towards the start my first thought was there's a lot of them. 17 runners, looked like hundreds. I could see her Jockey Andrew Ring in the middle of the pack wearing the green and black silks as the race began. The first jump comes almost immediately and I could see her approach it awkwardly and next thing was I could see her falling and turning completely upside down, legs in the air, bringing down the horse behind her also. It looked a horrible fall. I looked to see if she got up but the camera was following those still in the race. I thought I saw her get up and then I saw one loose horse running alongside and then the other one, Smiling Eliza was up. She showed her guts again. The commentator reported that Andrew Ring was still down though. Eliza ran the race jockeyless so she seemed ok, She even joined the eventual winner Zero Ten on the run in. Her Jockey wasn't so lucky but was at least able to walk into the ambulance.
Alex reported that Eliza was fine the next day and Andrew Ring had some bruising but nothing serious. A line will be put through this run and another race will be run. Whether they stick to chasing or go back to hurdling remains to be seen. We've lost a few horses unfortunately during my time in the club so the main thing was she was ok. I sent my mate a video of the beginning and the end of the race to show him what happened but that she was still running at the end of the race and he, like me, was just delighted that she was ok.
Meanwhile in Perth, the Champion Jockey continued his partnership with Gordon Elliott as Pat's Oscar went in a 2m 7f 207 yds, Class 4, Handicap Hurdle carrying top weight. Dicky Johnson had her tucked away on the inside, mid division. She was travelling well and jumping fine on the first circuit as Hastrabal and Black Label led them round. As they went out on their final lap, there was still no real change in the order with Pat's Oscar in about 6th running along the rail. Putting Green for Neil Mulholland was being given a peach of a ride by Tom Scudamore on the outside. They were sitting ready to pounce when the right moment arrived. The pace increased approaching the end of the back straight. Pat's Oscar made a mistake at the 3rd last that looked like it killed her momentum and she dropped back to about 8th or 9th in the field of 11. Richard Johnson rallied her again and she moved back up to about 7th as they made the final turn. She was being driven along at this stage with Putting Green still cruising on the outside. Approaching the second last, Pat's Oscar was now just behind the leaders who were in a line of 4 - Putting Green, Spectator, Black Label and Sleepy Haven. As those 4 cleared the last together, Pat's Oscar clattered into the hurdle and the good work was all undone. Putting Green went on to just win from Spectator with Pat's Oscar finishing in sixth about 10 lengths back.
Alex reported she was fine the next day but they were slightly disappointed with her. I thought she ran well and only those two mistakes cost her. "She struggled to stay with the pace carrying top weight but there's still a race to be won with her" said Richard Johnson afterwards.
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