Christmas memories of Irish Racing

By Donn McClean

Horse Racing

Sun December 22, 2024 · 7h ago

Irish racing writer Donn McClean recalls his early memories of the Black and White Whisky Champion Chase - now the Savills Chase - at Leopardstown.

Christmas memories? The cold and the crowds and the smell of smoke, and running down to the bottom of the line, trying to get six and a half or seven about the horse that had a six written in chalk beside it on Sean Graham’s board.

“Every horse a price!"

And your grandfather giving you a pound to back Paddy Mullins’ horse in the bumper, and pushing your way up through the stands, through the crowds, ducking under shoulders and arms (easy for a small fellow), so that you could get high enough and space enough to see the racecourse (not easy for a small fellow.) And the Dennys Gold Medal Chase and the Black and White Whisky Champion Chase and the Coral Golden Hurdle qualifier, and if you could get the winner of the Findus, you were usually set for the week.

You'd go to your grandfather’s house to eat Christmas pudding and to read the papers during the days beforehand. The Sporting Life, The Irish Field, the Racing Post, they were all part of the Christmas preamble in his little bungalow, two bedrooms and a bathroom and you’d have to clear the newspapers from the kitchen table to make way for the bowls and the spoons.

Very Promising won the inaugural running of the Black and White Whisky Champion Chase in 1986. Beat Bobsline. We couldn’t believe that he could beat Bobsline. It’s one of those races that you can still see in your mind’s eye: Very Promising in front under Richard Dunwoody, Bobsline stalking under Frank Berry, moving up to challenge as they race across the top of the track.

The YouTube recording is a little different to your mind’s eye’s record, mind you, which was, in fairness, taken from the ground on the rail with your naked eye as you waited for somebody to go ahead and invent the big screen. Turns out, Bobsline didn’t travel all over Very Promising at all, it didn’t appear as if Francis Flood’s horse had David Nicholson’s horse beaten, that he would have traded at long odds-on in-running if Betfair had been a thing.

He did move up nicely on the run to the second last fence though, between the leader and Royal Bond, who was always the oldest horse in any race. And Bobsline did move up on the outside of Very Promising to challenge as they raced around the home turn. But he never had him beaten. Richard Dunwoody always looked comfortable on the leader.

There was hardly a half a length between the two of them when they rose to the final fence, but it was only on landing that Dunwoody went for his horse and, when he did, Very Promising came away from his rival and won impressively.

They both went back for the Black and White Whisky the following year too and, that time, Bobsline came out on top in their private duel, but Weather The Storm beat the two of them, Arthur Moore’s youngster coming clear of his more experienced rivals under Tom Taaffe.

Maid Of Money won the race the following year, a mere six-year-old, and she won it the year after that too under Anthony Powell, and she landed the Irish Grand National in the interim. John Fowler’s mare was a remarkable mare, she was top-class, under all conditions, over all distances. She carried 11st 6lb when she won the Irish National, more than any horse had carried to victory in the race since Brown Lad had won the third of his three in 1978.

Windbeneathmywings is out on his own at Ascot

READ: Windbeneathmywings nears Champion Bumper standard

She beat Carvill’s Hill to win the Durkan Brothers Chase at Punchestown before she went back to Leopardstown in December 1989 in her bid to land the Black and White Whisky Champion Chase for the second time. In front from early and bowling along under Anthony Powell that day, she came under a ride as they raced around the home turn. She was enveloped by the challengers on the run to the final fence, Waterloo Boy on her left, Super Furrow on her right and, in truth, if you didn’t know the mare, if you didn’t know about her tenacity, you would have sworn that she was booked for third place.

A half a length behind on landing over the last, Mrs McCormick’s mare rallied gamely between horses on the run-in. At varying stages in the space of a couple of seconds, she looked booked for first, for second and for third but, in the end, she forged on up the hill inside the final 25 yards and got home by a half a length and the same.

The Black and White Whisky Champion Chase rarely attracted lots of runners, but it usually produced pulsating finishes. Like in 1990, Cahervillahow and Blitzkrieg clear of their three rivals in the market. It was a case of whether or not Charlie Swan could deploy Mouse Morris’ horse – a close-up third in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury on his previous run – in such a way as to make the race a test of stamina over two and a half miles, run the speed out of Blitzkrieg, who had won the Fortria Chase over two miles on his previous run.

It was Blitzkrieg all the way, or most of the way. Tommy Carmody stalking on JP McManus’ grey gelding as Charlie Swan pushed and cajoled away on Cahervillahow in front. Mistakes at the third last and second last fences didn’t help Mrs Valentine’s horse, and Charlie Swan actually got his stick out as they levelled up for the final fence and the home run as Tommy Carmody sat motionless on his outside on Blitzkrieg. But it’s a long pull from the crown of the home turn over the final fence and up to the winning line at Leopardstown, especially when the ground is testing. It is now, and it was then.

Blitzkrieg picked up in front at the last, he jumped the obstacle a little to his left as Cahervillahow pecked on landing. But when Carmody went for Edward O’Grady’s horse as they started off up the run-in, asked him to go and win his race, he couldn't get away from his dogged rival. Terrier-like, Cahervillahow stuck his neck out on the far side, wrested the lead back by the time the left-hand rail ended, and forged on to win by a length.

Maybe it was the dearth of runners that instigated the move to three miles in 1992, the demise of the Black and White Whisky sponsorship and the introduction of the Ericsson one. It wasn’t a bad move either, the move up in distance. It was definitely and unapologetically a race for the top staying chasers from that point, not a hybrid for two-milers stepping up in trip or three-milers stepping down. And it got its reward too, as evidenced by winners of the calibre of General Idea and Deep Bramble and Dorans Pride and Rince Ri and Beef Or Salmon and, of course, Best Mate.

The race has grown and thrived with the Lexus sponsorship and now with the Savills sponsorship. The sepia-tint may be gone, but the Savills Chase, the old Black and White Whisky Champion Chase, remains one of the most important races on the National Hunt racing calendar.

They don’t write the odds in chalk anymore, but every horse still has a price.

www.donnmcclean.com

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