Racing: Delirium as Danoli has the Call

Structural engineers will probably have to check out the stands here this morning. Danoli, the most popular figure in Ireland after the visitor who kisses the airport tarmac, yesterday captured the Hennessy Gold Cup to a reception that would have disturbed the seismologists. He is now favourite in one book to send tremors through the Cotswold countryside next month in the Gold Cup.

Danoli has everything that a hackneyed, soft-edge racing romance story could provide. He is good, and more than that he is courageous, having recovered from a broken leg, but, perhaps greatest of all, he is prepared by Tom Foley. This is a trainer of exquisite humility in a sport in which there are some Branson balloon-heads; a man devoted to normality and his horse.

Foley had reported his gelding in peak condition after a final piece of work on Jim Bolger's all-weather gallop, but even he must have been daunted by the sight that greeted him in the parade ring. Danoli looked like a runt in this company. Belmont King and Jodami, in particular, sported brutish physiques, and if they were picadors' mounts at the corrida you would not need a matador to frighten the bull.

Danoli was dwarfed and he also carried with him a record of fallible fencing. Like an orienteer coming across a nudist colony, his gaze does not always follow the path it should. "I've always said he's a reasonable jumper, but he's easily distracted and he does take his eye off at times," Foley said. "He looks up in the stands to see if he can see any new faces."

The trainer was consequently settled by the thought that the first phalanx of fences would be down the far side, away from the baying multitude. By the time Danoli reached the enclosures he had pulled himself to the front and many of the spectators were in danger of uprooting their tongues from their moorings.

On the second circuit, the tempo first accounted for Merry Gale and then The Grey Monk, who fell six out before he could provide any firm evidence of his ability in this company. Imperial Call looked menacing until lack of fitness and the prospect of trying to match Danoli for tenacity got the better of him, and it was only the old warhorse Jodami who was within reach in the straight. For a moment the old tank looked as if he might rumble past, but Danoli hung on grimly to win by a length and a half while Jodami's cheap reward was to collect a career-threatening injury to his off-fore in the closing stages.

When horse and horde returned, a grey twist of Foley's hair was all that was visible above the throng. When he came into view his tie was hanging pleasingly at about 5pm level. "He showed today that when he gets a clear run at his fences he's well capable of jumping them," the trainer said. "He's still a novice and he was making some mistakes in there, but so were the others and they're experienced horses. Maybe it's nice to make mistakes today so that when we get to Cheltenham we can get everything right."

Before the Festival, though, there is the rather more prosaic matter of the Red Mills Chase at Gowran Park a week on Saturday. Prosaic that is that except for the fact that Danoli may be joined by his arch foe Dorans Pride, whose fifth successive fencing victory in yesterday's Scalp Novices' Chase propelled him too up the Gold Cup ante-post list, and Imperial Call.

Last season's Gold Cup winner was by no means at his best yesterday and it would take a brave man to disregard his prospect of playing the bad baron in Gloucestershire's fairytale. "It was a very hectic gallop and he got tired," Conor O'Dwyer, his jockey, reported. "But I was happy with him in the circumstances because he's missed so much racing and so much work."

For Jodami it is hard to see the next outing. His trainer, Peter Beaumont, has only recently returned from a holiday in South Africa and on Saturday viewed a video of the gelding's victorious last outing at Haydock, where he squeezed through an aperture even Swampy would not attempt. Now all he could do was bandage his old soldier's ruptured tendon and leave him in the quiet cold of Leopardstown's racecourse stables. Beaumont emerged graciously to detail Jodami's injury and summed up his feelings with a sad face and a single word. "Bugger".

LEOPARDSTOWN

2.05: 1. DORANS PRIDE (J P Broderick) 8-11 fav; 2. See More Business 11-8; 3. Dun Belle 11-1. 4 ran. 6, Dist. (M Hourigan). Tote: pounds 1.60. Reverse: pounds 1.40. CSF: pounds 2.06.

3.40: 1. DANOLIi (T P Treacy) 6-1; 2. Jodami 5-1; 3. Imperial Call evens fav. 8 ran. 11/2, 20. (T Foley). Tote: pounds 5.40; pounds 1.80, pounds 1.70, pounds 1.30. Reverse: pounds 17.40. CSF: pounds 32.14.

CHELTENHAM GOLD CUP (Cheltenham, 13 March): Coral: 4-1 Danoli, 5-1 Imperial Call, 6-1 Coome Hill, 7-1 Dorans Pride, 10-1 Dublin Flyer & One Man; Ladbrokes: 4-1 Dorans Pride, 6-1 Dublin Flyer & Imperial Call, 8-1 Coome Hill & Danoli; William Hill: 4-1 Dorans Pride, 5-1 Imperial Call, 7-1 Danoli, 8-1 Coome Hill, Dublin Flyer & One Man.

Today's other cards, pages 16-17