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CAUSING A COMMOTION
By Niall Cronin
 Larger-than-life
Irish trainer looking to forget his health troubles on Friday at Cheltenham.
Kauto Star and Denman have been creating all the hype ahead of this year’s
Cheltenham festival and the battle has been compared to Arkle and Mill
House but there is another horse heading to the Cotswolds that one man
has mentioned in the same breath as the great Arkle.
He is not in the Gold Cup, his trainer has never had a runner in the
Gold Cup nor a Chelten-ham Festival winner and the horse in question is
running in a handicap. However Oliver Brady believes the rich vein of
form that his stable star Maralan has been in over the last two weeks
or so was down to the horse’s ability and there was no luck about
it as was suggested in some quarters.
Maralan was successful in a Grade 2 at Naas just over a week ago when
Schindlers Hunt came to grief at the last and seven days earlier he had
won another Grade 2 when Clopf suffered a similar fate at Navan.
One of the game’s true characters Brady believes that the reason
behind the two final flight falls was because Maralan was “up their
backsides” and that Arkle had a similar effect on some of his rivals.
“The fences are there to be jumped. The other fellas couldn’t
jump them and we could and that is it, end of story. I wouldn’t
be feeling hard done by if one of my horses came down, I would be saying
well, the better jumper won on the day.
“He forced the other ones into making errors, that was it,”
argued Brady. “On both occasions he was right up their backsides
and that was the situation.”
Be it luck or ability, providing there is no hiccup, Maralan will take
his place in the Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Chase at Cheltenham on
Friday. In his typical honest fashion the Monaghan native feels the seven-year-old
has every chance of going that bit better than his stable mate Baron De
Feypo did 12 months earlier.
“He is in good form. I think he will run a big race, the way he
worked the other day. He worked with two of my best horses and he just
ran away from them so I am happy with what he is doing — it is just
a matter of keeping him that way until Friday.”
Brady doesn’t get bogged down if things don’t go his way.
While some have spoken about their disappointment in the hefty rises the
English handicapper Phil Smith has given Irish-trained horses in comparison
to his Irish counterpart, Oliver Brady is just getting on with it.
“Maybe the English handicapper was hard on him as he rated him a
lot higher than what the Irish fellow would and if I had four pound less
I would have been happier but I have to take what I got.”
Few who were at Cheltenham last year will forget the scenes after Baron
De Feypo finished third in the Coral Cup — a run which gave the
popular trainer a moral victory. After a terrible time with illness, seeing
the reception that awaited the Nicky O’Shea-ridden nine-year-old’s
return was enough to lift his spirits.
“I was expecting him to go again this year but he had a bit of a
ligament problem and I am just letting him get over it. I won’t
be chancing him at all as there is still more races to come from him.”
The trainer whose ambition is to have a Cheltenham winner feels it is
that dream which keeps him going through a time when most would struggle.
“My health is my biggest problem. My health is a disaster but I
am getting through it now but you just have to keep going on and that’s
all. The horses have been there to give me a bit of a lift as I have had
a serious 18 months of bad health with cancer, a heart problem and at
the moment my lungs are bad but as I said we will keep going.”
Brady’s honesty regarding his horses’ chances has seen him
become a regular and popular guest on Attheraces and he often enjoys the
banter with controversial presenter Matt Chapman but after next week’s
Cheltenham Festival the trainer revealed to The Irish Post he is going
to be busy getting a new charity racing club up and running.
“I am hoping to raise between ?300,000 and ?400,000 for the people
who are less fortunate than me. I have a friend in Roscommon who has donated
a mare and Rita Shah has also donated one and what I plan on doing is
starting up a syndicate where people will pay ?1,000 to be in a racing
club. I will train the horses free of charge with all the money going
to the charity.
“I have already told St. Luke’s hospital in Dublin that they
will be getting a good bit of the money for a scanning machine. My plan
was that before I passed on I would have done something for those needier
than me.”
At Navan and Naas for both Maralan’s victories, a large crowd quickly
flocked to the winners’ enclosure to catch a glimpse of Brady’s
notorious after-race celebrations.
“I get as much of a buzz out of it as the punters do. They enjoy
it and I enjoy giving it to them and the more they egg me on the better
it is for them and the better it is for me. The main thing is not to disappoint
the people as they expect it now.”
It was back in 1997 when it all began with “Up Monaghan” being
renowned as Brady’s catchphrase.
“It all started with a horse I had called Gazalani who won at Fairyhouse
at 33/1 and I had a right few quid on him. He won the Jameson Gold Cup
Novice Hurdle when he was the outside of the seven runners and JP McManus
had the 4/7 favourite in the race called Finnegan’s Hollow and I
got a bit excited and let a couple of roars and from that day onwards
it never stopped. Punters ever since have been running to the ring and
I don’t like to let them down.
“I got excited and started saying ‘Up Monaghan’ and
JP said to me: ‘I suppose you will celebrate back up in Monaghan’
and I said to him: ‘We will surely — we sent Finnegan’s
to Monaghan for a wake and we’ll be having a party!’ and that
is where all the commotion really started.”
Should Maralan enter the winners’ enclosure on Friday all previous
commotion will seem positively tame. And that’s saying something.
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