Race Night Raging Success

The rules that govern the treasurer’s purse this year dictate that each code organise a fundraiser to contribute towards the spiralling costs that come with an expanding club. The lads seemed unmoved by such direction until Collie B got it into his head to run a race night.

In barely over three weeks it went from a good idea to one of the best fundraisers the club has had.

The beauty of a race night is it offers many avenues to generate money; selling horses, races, VIP tables and bets on the night itself. Despite needing a bit of a slap in the build up to the event, the lads stepped up and everything that could be flogged beforehand was, meaning we had over a grand in clear profit heading into the night.

We got great support from former players like Ollie, Carlo, Enda, Emmett and many more. Some of our newest members like Fred also came up trumps big time with support. It was great to see and shows that whilst the lads may have moved on, they haven’t forgotten the good times.

On the night, we had VIP tables from Coca-Cola (Mairtin and Paddy), FC Irlande, The Perm Rep, Toyota, Fred and one or two more. Shane and Olof ran an efficient mobile bookies around those tables, although Giller’s inability to remember names doesn’t bode well for his political ambitions. Fortunately, any difficult questions were taken out of his hands by the excellently prepared race guide which a credit to Sylvia.

Timmy, Johnny, Darragh, Collie B and Ross kept the main bookie stand going and the steady stream of punters insured they were kept busy. It’s quite an operation on the night as the money must be collected, quickly counted and then redistributed (not all of course!) to the winners.

The night was also heavy supported by the politicos of the city with Sean Kelly sponsoring a race and working the floor for the night. Commission Maire Geoghan-Quinn was very generous with her sponsorship as were many other MEPs (I’ll leave Collie B thank them officially!).

The highlight of the night was the final race; The Belgian Champion Hurdle. This featured a piggy back race, with five of the lads and five of the girls paired off. The race was filmed beforehand, amid great secrecy and the couples were sold off for €20 a pair.

Ross worked the crowd and somewhere along the way, Fergal (with Christine on his back), became the fan favourite with heavy betting on him. The build up to the race itself was magnificent with the crowd being able to observe the couples in the paddock prior to the race. In the end, it was Conor Mul who upset the form guide and stormed to victory.

With the final race run, Colin took the purse and disappeared into the night. He was last seen on the South coast of Spain but we hope when he returns that he will confirm our estimated earnings of €2500.

The great support, especially from outside our membership, was very much appreciated and will be even more when we get some decent balls at training again!! Special mention my brother John and his wife Zoe who sponsored a race and also the Kinsale lads who bought all the horses in it. David Shortall now has €100 worth of riding lessons for himself!