Irish on top

Humphrey Bogart once complained that the trouble with the world was that ‘everybody in it is three drinks behind’. He would have liked the three Irishmen ahead of me on the track to Esher station after Saturday’s Betfred Gold Cup meeting ended the 2004–5 jumping season. ‘Jasus, it was cramped in there, never seen such a crowd,’ declared one, weaving left and cutting off my inside break. ‘“Too many tramps?”, you’re right,’ muttered the next, swerving right to close down the next gap that appeared. ‘There wasn’t a decent woman in sight.’

‘A decent old run, to be sure,’ declared the third, clearly referring to the big race victor Jack High, trained by Ted Walsh and ridden by Garrett Cotter, who had swooped up the Sandown hill to deny Nicky Henderson’s Juveigneur and the French raider Kelami. Heaven knows if the three reached their destination, if they could agree what that was, but it had certainly been a grand day and a grand season for the Irish.