Where else would you find Francis Brennan horsing around (excuse the pun, actually don’t, there’s going to be a lot more), Lynda Martin becoming the dark horse and Jean Byrne tell it like it is straight from the horse’s mouth, only on Stars Go Racing. The newest reality show to hit our tellies began last night on RTÉ One and we can safely say we haven’t laughed so hard since Father Ted’s Lovely Horse song came out.
The whole idea of the show is to take six celebrities and six well-known trainers. Add a horse and a whole load of hard work and make them race against each other. Whoever makes it to the final will win an exclusive spot in a race at Leopardstown and take home the much coveted Leopardstown cup. The only problem is that while most of the celebs seem to have a bit of minor knowledge about horses, there are a select few that haven’t even stroked one in their lives. This should be interesting.
First up last night was trainer Johanna Morgan. With an impressive CV, including becoming the first ever female jockey to ride in Ireland, she is certainly taking no prisoners. Despite her desire to be landed with a big strong rugby hunk, Johanna’s celebrity came in the form of hotelier Francis Brennan. This man is TV gold, if he isn’t coming out with hilarious one-liners, you can tell he’s just about to any second. Although perhaps Johanna drew the short straw, as he’s never been on a horse in his life and even admitted to being scared of them. Well that’s not a good start. Who knows, maybe starting from scratch will come as an advantage to him. Although when the phrase “God love them they’ve got a lot on their plate, stamping their feet and grinding their teeth” came out of his mouth, we lost a bit of hope.
Next up was a slightly more amicable relationship. David Marnane is known in the racing world as he built up his business from just six horses, to the whole herd he has now. While Lynda Martin certainly knows a thing or two about dogs, she has 23 of them, she also has her very own horse at home. After a day bonding at the races, the pair quickly became confident that they can actually do well in this competition. We don’t put anything past her.
Then it was on to probably the most notorious of the trainers on last night’s show, Jessica Harrington. Her name will forever be associated with Irish racing after she led Moscow Flyer to win many races in this country. Unfortunately for Johanna, it was actually Jessica that got the big strong rugby hunk on her team. Irish rugby union player Alan Quinlan knows how to work like a horse and succeed in what he does. While Jessica blatantly didn’t have a clue who he was, there appeared to be some fans of his in the stables. For her, it’s not just about the winning. She’d also like to raise the public perception of racing in Ireland and show people that it’s not all about gambling. Alan was pretty happy with himself and his trainer, and he should be, he’s landed on his feet.
If it’s glamour the trainers are looking for, then Jean Byrne has it in abundance. Arriving in the yard dressed in her impressive high heels, trainer Willie McCreary looked a bit flabbergasted. The fact that she’s a meteorologist should come in useful for their days training, but she would want to lose those heels. But we’re not going to cast her aside just yet. She has a few years horseracing behind her, so that’s already an advantage on Francis.
Aido McGuinness has been in the business for years. While he said some think he couldn’t train pigs to be dirty, we disagree and think he’ll do a great job imparting his wisdom on country singer Mike Denver. With a huge fan base in Ireland, Mike has eleven albums under his belt. After a hard day on the beach giving the horses their own Jacuzzi, Mike gave Aido a parting gift of one of his CDs. That lucky man.
Finally, it was the turn of broadcaster Ella McSweeney. She presents RTÉ’s Ear To The Ground so surely has no problem being around horses. Her trainer, Michael Halford, built and designed his Copper Beach Stables from scratch. As far as we could tell from last night’s show, he’ll have no problem getting Ella near the horses and she landed a big kiss on horse Mullingar’s face. Perhaps taking the competition a bit far?
So who are your bets on to win the Leopardstown cup? We’re going to get behind Francis Brennan and his fabulousity.
The race is on.
Sarah Carty
