DUR Presents Matty’s 30th Anniversary Allowance

Come celebrate with Matty, Maria and the Down Under Racing Gang

By Darcy “Dingo” MacPhee

Sunday is a big day for the fledgling Down Under Racing, with it’s 1^st Restricted to Members only race. However, it will not be what many have expected, no Grand Opening with a Stakes race to commemorate the occasion, it isn’t even being held Down Under.

It is way more IMPORTANT than that, the FIRST race for the residency was sponsored by one of the founding Members, Matty. Managing the “chips4u2c” Racing Stables, Matty bought a Restricted allowance for Fillies and Mares, to celebrate 30 wonderful years with his lovely wife, Maria .

The race is being run in the land of blarney at the home of Irish Racing – Curragh Racecourse, County Kildare, to honour Maria’s Irish heritage.

With a purse of $78,000, Matty said he has spared no expense for his tribute, and it is his way of showing Maria that all the time he spends on the computer with his virtual stables is actually to honour her. (Writer’s Note: Come now Matty I bet that didn’t fly at all did it? Maria may have married you 30 years ago, but everyone is allowed one silly mistake, doesn’t make them totally gullible).

Sunday’s race is set to run over the tricky mile course that is actually just outside the main course at The Curragh. Unable to afford to add his race to the 8 race card on Saturday, the Curragh Board offered Matty the honour of having his race to be the 1^st use this season of Walsh’s Hill Gallops.

(History Break: The Curragh grass gallops are the foundation of the training grounds and are rotated throughout the year in order to provide fresh ground throughout the season. Walsh’s Hill opens each March and has a variety of canters, grass, trial and peat gallops. They range from 8 to 12 furlongs and are where horses like Sea the Stars and Harzand did their main work. Walsh’s Hill is named after the Walsh family, who owned a property there and gave their name to the highest point on the Curragh Training Grounds.)

With everything in place for his grand gesture to Maria, he then had to explain to her that what with the cost of organizing the race, shipping the horse, tack, special feed, stable staff and other odds and ends that they will have to watch the race on the Telly in their loungeroom at home. (Writers note to Matty: You better have iced down some proper bubbly and got at least 2kg of prawns if you expect Maria to stand (well sit) for that).

The Race:

Ireland (IRE)

Sunday, February 26, 2023 — 1:40:00 PM EST | Race ID : 3054343

CHIPS 30 Year Anniversary Allowance – Purse $78,000 For 4 yo and up Fillies and Mares Over 1600 metres (8 furlongs) on the Walsh’s Hill Gallops

The Horses:

Matty’s horse Bandit Steps, oddly enough appears to have already been in Ireland and racing recently at The Curragh track, was obviously the first horse entered for the race. (Writers Note: Really and you are watching the race on the TV from Queensland, because it cost so much to ship the horse)?

Ten other members reached into their pockets and hearts to find a suitable Mare to send to Ireland for this race, among the first entries were from our European friends.

Simon (with a conglomerate of over 200 stables including “ffoslas” and “groupies” Master stables supporting the Residency). had his Group 3 winning mare Zousong kicking down the stable door at his Berkshire stables, so a short ferry ride across the Irish Sea, and she is ready to rumble.

Next we have Pascal from Belgium,(of the well-known “woette1” stables) bringing his Mare Woette’s Champ who is no stranger to travelling for her races. Having run in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and Europe in the last 12 months, being only in Germany was no problem to ship over to Ireland for the race as the 4/1 favourite.

Staying in Europe we travel to Denmark, where Kim (utilising his ample equine resources from 1 of his multiple stable groups “rasmus”), rushed right over from Spain his aptly named Mare Russian Right Over with the intention of taking home a share of Matty’s prize money (Writers Note: I am reliably informed that Kim is a romantic at heart, and any prize money he wins will be sent to Maria for her European Vacation fund, to make up for having to watch the race on the telly).

Our remaining 7 horses come from our Australian contingent of Residents who have spared no expense and with blatant disregard to earning any Breeder’s Points from Sunday’s Race.

In no particular order these “Magnificent Seven” are our royal visitor The Queen and Duke from Matt (“magoo2912” stables), who being in Berkshire in true Aussie fashion hitchhiked a lift on the ferry with Simon’s horse.

Then came Andrew’s mare My Bella Donna from his “crawf68” who managed to book a shared 3 horse flight starting in Victoria. Picking up the other 2 in Brisbane,  Jamie’s Mare Bimbo Thinkbubble from his “guru” stable, although it was a 500km 8 hour drive to get her to Brisbane from the wastelands of regional NSW, where she was having a break from racing. The last of the 3 is Mat’s (yes with one T, ask his dad why?) mare, Good On Toast from the lovely hinterland training and agistment property “lindsypark”.

Johnno from his obvious “johnno” stables is represented by his in form mare Make Me Queen who has been racing recently in Germany, and Pascal very kindly offered a spare box on his flight out of Frankfurt To Dublin, which Johnno gratefully accepted.

Kain from the “ksparrow” stables was having the most trouble arranging to get his chosen Mare Lady Bones to Ireland With his last race being in China, it seems the local authorities were under the impression Kain was trying to ship some historical woman’s body to Ireland (you have to love the problems of language difficulties). Luckily a local gambler, who had made a fortune on the horse running last at the local meeting, came to the rescue and with ¥50,000 (A$10,000) changing hands, paperwork was completed and the horse departed for Dublin.

That leaves the lucky last entrant in Sunday’s race as my very own Sharp Thunder, having her first start for my “dingo333” stables after being claimed in the USA just over 5 weeks ago, she gets to go sightseeing in Ireland. So she better earn me a check of some kind, as the Breeders Points are already lost!

Nope no handicapping the field, you will have to enjoy the race and make your own minds up who you think can win, as for all of us at Down Under Racing, we just wish Matty and Maria a great Anniversary, and thank Matty for putting on this great way to break in our Residency’s racing Calendar. To see more come visit our website at Down Under Racing have a look around and enjoy.

The Last Word:

We all here are totally delighted to celebrate Matty and Maria’s 30^th Anniversary with them on Sunday. That couch in the lounge room at Matty’s home is going to be quite crowded as we all stayed in Australia, on the understanding that Matty was putting on a feed of freshly cooked Queensland Bugs Crays Prawns and a Keg after the race.

Good punting all

Darcy “Dingo” MacPhee