RACING: Risk overcomes rare hazards

The conclusion of Ireland's serious jumping season is signalled by a Cup contest not to be witnessed by the faint-hearted

RICHARD EDMONDSON reports from Punchestown

If a person gets tired of life an easy way to end it would be to tie up the blindfold and go for a walk across Punchestown's infield during the La Touche Cup.

Horses, some with riders and some without, gallop along a mazy path during this four-mile race, won yesterday by Risk Of Thunder. The contest offers a variety of obstacles more readily associated with the Badminton horse trials. Drinking before setting out to find a safe spectating vantage point is not advisable.

Even jockeys find this course asks questions of the heart and it was rumoured that after one British rider walked the circuit this week his sights were not on the statistics in the form book but rather the figures of the flight timetable back home.

The bravest spectators attend the Bank, a raised mound which asks galloping thoroughbreds to exhibit the skills of a tap dancer. Some of the runners do not like this assignment and duck out towards open-mouthed crowds.

The third and last day of the Punchestown Festival traditionally signals the end of the serious National Hunt season both in Ireland, and tomorrow's Whitbread card apart, in the British Isles as a whole. There will be no more opportunities for visitors to enjoy the mobile supermarket that comes to Ireland's racecourses, traders offering canned drinks, fruit and chocolate from the top of prams. Old women offer a dozen apples in a plastic bag for a punt, and are not easy to dissuade. If told the victim of the hard sell does not like apples they simply insist on selling a half bag.

This was a last fix for those who had not yet run out of money or emotion, either here in the first two days or at the football and dogs. As the lights sparkled on Ireland against Portugal at Landsdowne Road on Wednesday evening a smaller, quieter gathering assembled at the nearby building site they call the Shelbourne Park Greyhound Stadium. The only qualifications to be a punter here are £3 and optimism, while the specification to be a bookmaker seems simply to possess the surname Farrell.

The equine name of the meeting was Strong Platinum, the tough and talented gelding who followed up Tuesday's win by sweeping aside Sound Man and Klairon Davis, the pair who had previously fought out the Arkle Chase at the Festival.

Indeed Cheltenham form looked a bit stale all round. Dorans Pride and Chance Coffey, two heroic figures from the Festival, were no match for Derrymoyle in the Tipperkevin Hurdle.

The Aintree victor Stompin was backed as if he was being given a circuit start in the Four-Year-Old Hurdle. Henrietta Knight's gelding led into the straight but was swamped by Shaihar.

PUNCHESTOWN RESULTS: 2.00: 1. Cotton Call (T Horgan) 20-1; 2. Gale Toi 16-1; 3. Ring The Alarm 14-1. 21 ran. 9-4 fav Thinking Twice. NRs: Appellate Court, Justaway, Muscovy Duck. 2.30: 1. Risk Of Thunder (Mr K Whelan) 7-1; 2. Ardubh 10-1; 3. The Parish Pump 12-1. 18 ran. 5-1 fav Far Senior. NR: Waterloo King. 3.05: 1. Shaihar (K F O'Brien) 16-1; 2. Stompin 13- 8 fav; 3. Backgammon 9-1. 20 ran. 3.45: 1. Derrymoyle (M P Dwyer) 8-1; 2. Dorans Pride 5-4 fav; 3. Currency Basket 11-4. 8 ran. NRs: Northern Hide, Simpson. 4.15: 1. Strong Platinum (C O'Dwyer) 7-4; 2. Sound Man 5-2; 3. Klairon Davis 6-4 fav. 5 ran. 4.45: 1. Rough Quest (M A Fitzgerald) 4-1; 2. Feathered Gale 4-1; 3. Have To Think 14-1. 9 ran. 3-1 fav Force Seven. NRs: Monsieur Le Cure, Scribbler, Wylde Hide. 5.15: 1. Kimanicky (Mr E Norris) 8-1; 2. Madison County 3-1; 3. Finchpalm 7-2. 20 ran. 9- 4 fav Slyguff Rosey. NRs: Carnanee, Father Gerry, Section Seven, Supreme Alliance. 5.40: 1. Randolph Place (R F Coonan) 7-1; 2. Saddlestown Glen 8-1; 3. Miltonfield evens fav. 20 ran. NRs: All The Vowels, Galavotti, Laura's Beau.