Avondale: End of The Line

I had wanted to get to Avondale to pay my respects but had a family commitment out of town. Sadly I think they'll struggle to get racing back. The dates that have gone to other clubs will be harder to prize back than a politicians credit card reimbursement.

I hope they come up with constructive ways to keep the assets - particularly the land- productive. Selling our assets to fund stakemoney and keep other facets of our industry going is too short term thinking. Maybe it can be developed as a training and trials centre like Cambridge.

Avondale holds special memories for me; first venturing there in the early 80's and including my first taste of raceday ownership. Three of my favourite performances are:

1986 Avondale Cup: The quality of Avondale Cup fields has lessened markedly in recent years but from the mid 70's to the end of the 90's it was undeniably the toughest middle distance handicap in the land. Solveig was a wonderful little mare, particularly potent when the summer tracks were at their hardest and she could roll along on a fast tempo. This day she took a sit behind the leader before sprinting to the front 500m from home, running her last 1200m in 1.11 and giving none of those behind her any chance.

1989 Concorde: Maybe not a classic Concorde but for me the most memorable because my dad was co breeder of the winner Testament. Injury plagued throughout his career he had returned from almost a year out on this occasion to beat the 'useful' Mr Tiz, Festal and Zephyr Magic amongst others.

2005 Concorde: With it's uncambered bends Avondale tendered to favour front runners and the courses history is littered with stellar performances from some of our more re known tear aways such as Jans Beau, Oranmore and Greene Street however it will always be hard to trump this performance. An immensely talented and teak tough gelding who was cruelly cut down just days after this breathtaking performance when preparing for the Railway, the aptly named Run Like The Wind burst from a wide gate this day and found the rail after less than 200m before burning off many off the country's best sprinters with a sustained display of strength and speed that was so pronounced that I'm sure he could have carried the success even easier out to 1400m so strongly did he find the line.