Iris De Balme silences Ayr with victory

Published on Saturday 19 April 2008 19:46

THE sound of silence is one of the saddest occurrences in sport, as it is most often heard when unexpected defeat occurs.

The last-minute penalty in football, the injury-time try in rugby, the massive outsider winning the Scottish Grand National... if the result goes against your team or your horse, you don't much feel like shouting.

Thus it was at Ayr yesterday when the completely unheralded Iris De Balme from the yard of second-season trainer Sean Curran simply romped away from the rest of the field at the end of the four-mile marathon Coral Scottish Grand National. A huge crowd of 17,200 was stunned into silence as the 66-1 shot – it was 99-1 on the Tote – made it look easy under amateur jockey Charlie Huxley.

Just before the shock result in the big race, a 40-1 outsider, Border Castle, won the Samsung Electronics Scottish Champion Hurdle. With a 25-1 winner taking the race after the National, there was blood on the betting track, all of it shed by punters.

Iris De Balme was carrying 26lbs more than it should have done in such a handicap. By all the expert reckoning, the horse should not have had a chance. Yet Iris De Balme did have some form, having won the Kent National at Folkestone in February. And Curran was a wily jockey in his time – as a rider he once had a 100-1 winner at Ayr called Meditator – while young Huxley is from a racing family and works for Scots-born Alan King's yard in Gloucestershire.

It was King who made the fateful decision which allowed Huxley to win the race, becoming the first amateur since Peter Craggs in 1978 to do so. The top weight, the fancied Halcon Generaldais, was ridden for King by Robert "Choc" Thornton, with the trainer putting Richard Johnson aboard eventual favourite Old Benny. As it turned out, it was King's twosome who looked most likely to go on and win on the final circuit. But they reckoned without a devastating run from three furlongs out by Iris De Balme.

At the line, the eight-year-old was 14 lengths clear of 10-1 chance Halcon Generaldais, with Flintoff third at 8-1 and 4-1 favourite Old Benny in fourth. "We'll get murdered in the handicap but who cares," said Curran, who would not rule out a tilt at next Saturday's Betfred Gold Cup.

Owner Lee Power, the former Hibs and Dundee player, left, turned publisher of the Celtic View and Rangers News, revealed that the Scottish National was second choice for Iris De Balme. "We had him in the chase at Exeter earlier in the week but took him out because of the ground," said Power. "I played at Old Trafford and in Milan for Norwich City but this takes all the beating."

Earlier on a good day for Scottish owners and trainers, Renfrewshire trainer Jim Goldie sent out La Vecchia Scuola for the second day running to win at the Craigie course. The 3-1 shot sprinted away from the field to win the opening Purvis Marquees Juvenile Novices Hurdle, with Ruby Walsh second on Paul Nicholls' Super Formen.

Walsh was second again on the Nicholls-trained odds-on favourite Noland in the following Ashleybank Investments Future Champions Novices chase. The Arkle Chase third looked to have the race won until Choc Thornton rejuvenated Starzaan on the run-in to win by two-and-a-half lengths. The Scottish Champion Hurdle was then notable for a horse that wasn't in the field.

Kauto Star made up for recent disappointments by landing the Order of Merit prize for the second year in a row. His only rival for the title, Lough Derg, faded to finish ninth in the race won by Border Castle, a seven-year-old gelding trained by Andy Haynes, well-ridden by Nick Scholfield, and bred by no less a personage than Her Majesty the Queen. Ruby Walsh made it a hat-trick of seconds on 9-4 favourite Takeroc, again trained by Nicholls.

A different jockey made no change for Nicholls, second again with Gansey under Sam Thomas in the Ballochmyle by Ardgowan Homes handicap hurdle. Again it was an outsider's victory, as Scotland's leading owner, Raymond Anderson Green, took the prize with 25-1 chance Overserved, ridden by Timmy Murphy. He promptly notched a double on Marcel at 6-1 for Midlothian trainer Peter Monteith in the Albert Bartlett and Sons steeplechase. And in second was, you've guessed it, Ruby Walsh on board the Nicholls-trained Andreas.

Murphy brought up his treble on the day, and a double for Anderson Green, on Andrew Parker's Merigo in the Cenkos Securities Novices chase. And in the closing Ashleybank Investments bumper, Walsh and Nicholls finally ended their seconditis with 6-4 favourite Conflictofinterest winning easily, though not so easily as Iris De Lambe.