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Owner Rich Ricci and Ruby Walsh pose with Min after winning the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase during day one of the Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown Racecourse earlier this year. PA Wire/PA Images
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Johnny Ward: Racing needs more characters like the colourful Rich Ricci

‘You are soon forgotten in this game but Ricci has no intention of abandoning a sport that has served him well.’

IF YEATS STRUGGLED to distinguish between the dancer and the dance, RTÉ’s Aprés Match made it hard to tell the character from the caricature.

Some weeks ago, I did a little interview with Mark Lawrenson on Off The Ball, finding myself unable to get Risteard Cooper’s signature Lawro out of my mind. The real Mark Lawrenson was talking; I couldn’t see or hear him.

Skits of such quality go viral online; lower-key ones struggle to gain traction. After Conor Moore’s pre-Cheltenham sketches on behalf of an Irish bookmaker achieved over 750,000 views on Twitter alone, one was wondering why racing had missed a trick in this regard for so long.

Moore generally nailed his subjects, including Rich Ricci. “Well Willie’s a tremendous judge of a horse,” he enthuses, Moore suitably in shades, teeth white as chalk. “He’s a wonderful man, a great guy and we have a great relationship: I pay him a lot of money and he tells me what to do (chortling).”

If racing needs more of Conor Sketches and his ilk, it needs more like Rich Ricci. Ricci is a charismatic and hands-on owner, happy to mingle with the masses on race-day and a welcome incongruity clad in tweed, trilby and sunglasses – even in December.

He’s also a yank.

In the week prior to Cheltenham 2019, the former Barclays banker-turned-racehorse owner supposedly landed a big payday after BetBright, the struggling online bookmaker, was bought by a rival firm. However, considerable anger reigned among punters over BetBright’s decision to void all outstanding antepost bets.

This was a bizarre own-goal for someone who should know racing pretty well at this stage. As a consequence of widespread media criticism, the firm that subsumed BetBright later announced it would honour Cheltenham antepost positions as a “gesture of goodwill”.

Paddy Power / YouTube

If Ricci understands racing, the media does not get gambling – and how difficult it is for a new firm to survive in a ruthless market. “Rich Ricci winning big on £15 million BetBright sale” read one headline. This is grossly misleading and Ricci clearly would have lost a relative fortune on his BetBright investment.

On Friday, its former executive chairman partnered with another firm to announce a plan which will enable former BetBright customers to have their antepost bets reinstated. He will now hope to move on and start becoming a relevant force as an owner again after what has been an exceptionally lean spell for one who got accustomed to gorging.
Whilst the days of Faugheen (at his best), Vautour, Douvan and Annie Power were the stuff of dreams, this year’s Cheltenham for Ricci was from the manual of racing as the game of vicissitudes.

On day one, Sharjah was brought down in the Champion Hurdle. Limini pulled up in the Mares’ Hurdle, a race of course pretty much everyone remembers for Benie Des Dieux falling inexplicably at the last, which Ruby Walsh essentially called a one-in-a-hundred event. (And yes, we do remember Annie Power, as does he.)

On day two, Min bombed in the Champion Chase, with Ballycasey fourth over the banks. On the Thursday, Faugheen and Bapaume could not live with Paisley Park in the Stayers’ Hurdle, while Livelovelaugh was beaten 35 lengths in the Kim Muir.

Ricci likely felt like staying at home on the Friday, and similar comments may as well have applied to Tiger Tap Tap and Salsaretta, both well-beaten as the Festival’s ending neared – happily for the American owner in the colourful attire.

You are soon forgotten in this game but Ricci has no intention of abandoning a sport that has served him well. What punters probably do not realise is that the majority of his horses with Willie Mullins are aged six or younger and the dry winter has been a relative disaster for his string.

Things are looking up, commencing potentially with Burrows Saint, declared in Limerick’s Grade 3 Hugh McMahon Memorial Novice Steeplechase (4.05) on Sunday. However, Fairyhouse and Punchestown could be especially bountiful.

Salsaretta is a formidable force in the Grade 1 mares’ novice hurdle on April 21, while both Getabird (returning from injury) and Chancun Pour Soi (won by an incredible 31 lengths at Naas) are potentially massive players in the Ryanair Gold Cup.

Remember back on November 10 when Saldier was favourite to beat a certain Espoir D’Allen and upsides that horse at Naas’s final flight when exiting? He is nearing a return, while the hope is that Douvan will be back next season, still a relatively young horse aged nine.

Bamako Moriviere, who snared a Grade 3 novice chase by 16 lengths when last seen, is also on the road to returning. Embryonic chasers in Deal D’estruval, Antey, Catwells and Crack Tiepy are there for Ricci to look forward to, as well as a glut of younger horses such as Monkfish, Aione and the juvenile dark horse, Jon Snow.

More Ricci shortly but the last time Descendant ran in a handicap, he was a 7/1 chance – yet he is 25/1 tonight with Betway ahead of the penultimate contest at Dundalk (8.15). He has gone close on two of three occasions that David Simmonson has ridden him, with the exception of an early unseat last time.

Mutadaffeq, meanwhile, looks a nice each-way bet on Sunday in Limerick’s Adare Manor Opportunity Handicap Hurdle (3.30) under local rider Conor McNamara. A useful sort on the Flat, he was given plenty to do when fourth to a stablemate at Naas.

Back to Ricci and Jon Snow. The newsreader of that name could give the gregarious owner some more questionable sartorial steers but might also advise him that when it comes to the news, things can blow over pretty quickly.

Many of his horses who may be forgotten still have stories to tell too.

Murray Kinsella and Bernard Jackman look ahead to a huge weekend for the provinces in Europe and Ryan Bailey catches up with Ian Keatley on the latest episode of The42 Rugby Weekly:


The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud

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