Yes it has been a busy few weeks since Royal Ascot- the Air Miles have boomed with trips to The Curragh, Newmarket, York, Nottingham, Market Rasen and Killarney.
That trip to the Kingdom of County Kerry is one of the highlights of the year- wonderful people, a setting that quite simply is without equal, with the mountains in the background and racing by night as the sun sets behind them is worth the journey alone- and the folk of Killarney turn hospitality and friendship into an art form.
I have been a very lucky guy too these past few months. First to be invited to call races at both Punchestown and Killarney Festivals, for the tracks and for TV; a wonderful gesture by Dessie Scahill, one of the world’s great broadcasting icons and the course management. The buzz it gives you is like no other.
But also to understand the passion of those people who are involved- the trainers and the jockeys especially who create that buzz. Guys like Harry Bentley, as decent a human being who you will meet who claimed his first Group One success in the UK in the July Cup at Newmarket, and Wayne Lordan and Robbie Power talking eloquently about the anticipation of the great Galway Festival which starts next week – there are 7 days to enjoy it and 358 to think up next year’s excuse as the late and much missed Racing Priest Father Sean Breen once told me.
It’s the travelling season, away from the long running festivals that gets you closer to the people in this sport and to understand what makes them click.
And why it has most definitely been worth sleeping in 13 different beds in the last seven weeks to simply do my job- and be part of Racing on Tour.
Now to start planning for Killarney in 2017 and a good decoy for a suspicious ‘her indoors’.
And before that the tour moves on, to Goodwood and Galway next week for a start!
By Mike Vince