WEXFORD RACECOURSE staged its pre-Galway Festival meeting on Friday night last with a mixed seven-race card down for decision. Amazingly, for the fourth Friday evening in a row, racegoers were treated to a lovely, sunny evening which helped to swell the crowds attending to the satisfaction of racecourse management.

The 6.05 p.m. start is also an attraction, with most near everyone attending able to make it for all seven races and enjoy some really good racing.

There was a real battle with the bookmakers as punters were successful on three occasions with a couple of wellsupported horses also winning. This was a fair return as the change in ground conditions to yielding (soft in places) could have had a much bigger impact on results.

With the track at Wexford staging the only meeting of the weekend in Ireland, we were graced with a live link from 'At The Races', who were scurrying about picking up interviews for their live broadcast both inside and outside the parade ring all evening. Another interesting feature was the sponsoring and presentation of the best turned out awards at the track by a visiting English man, Trevor Ginn. Celebrating his 50th birthday , this was a novel present to him by his wife. The track could well use similar ways of generating income into the future.

The racing highlight was the Hilary Murphy Travel Handicap Chase run over two miles, six furlongs. It was heartwarming to see Hilary himself at the races and in the presentation party to the connections of the winning horse, 'Old Hall'. Murphy has been a supporter of the track for years and continues to lend his company's name to sponsor races.

The chase track is starting to be a real talking point at Bettyville, and for the second meeting in a row the biggest controversy of the meeting surrounded the finish of a steeplechase following the omission of the final fence. With Adrian Heskin being attended to on the landing side of the final fence, having fallen on the previous circuit, the remaining horse and jockeys bypassed it and rode out a tight finish with 'Hatton's Wood' passing the post first by a short head from 'Old Hall'. The subsequent much-anticipated stewards' enquiry saw the placings of the first two home being reversed, with the William Codd-trained 'Old Hall' being declared the winner. Ridden by Barry Geraghty, the 5/2 favourite, an eight-year-old son of 'Arctic Lord', came to lead before the bypassed fence and was just shaded on the line by the 25/1 'Hatton's Wood' under Andrew Thornton.

This horse must have been adjudged by the stewards to have interfered with the favourite on the run to the line and lost the race. Now, from my own vantage point it seemed to me a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other as three horses, 'Hatton's Wood', 'Old Hall' and 'Artiste Bay', came up the flat track after missing out the final fence and seemed to bounce off each other and then wander out towards the middle of the track and finish on the grandstand side.

With 'Hatton's Wood', physically a much bigger horse, more likely intimidating his rivals rather than interfering with them, he seemed a little unlucky to lose the race in the stewards' room.

Questions need to be asked as to the racecourse set-up. The final fence is tight against the outer perimeter of the track and allows no room to be safely bypassed on the left-hand side. This leaves the only bypass option on the right-hand side, and everywhere else on the track it seems to work as they move back to their left to get in line for the next fence, but not at the final fence it seems.

It looked to me at least that a finish could be fought out up the flat track finish as the winning line runs from the grandstand side right over to the far fence with no need to run down by the grandstand side. Maybe the Turf Club officials didn't make this clear to riders as some may have thought that they had to get their horses back over the grandstand side to finish. I just do not know but it seems that this situation cannot be allowed to happen for a third time at the track.

The Crown Bar-sponsored Beginners' Steeplechase was the other jumping race on the card, and this went to the J.P. McManus-owned 'Salesin' under a great ride from Niall 'Slippers' Madden. This seven-year-old son of 'Lomitas' is trained in Co. Kildare by 'Boots' Madden who commented: ' he jumped brilliant, got a good ride from my son and he will go for another chase'.

This was the horse's fourth win and he did well to win here at 9/2 as he had been left at the start. I'm not sure why the race officials are so fussy, but the 15 horses for this race were down at the start at least four minutes early and having circled time after time before the race time came around, but when they finally came under starter's orders there was a false start! Having to be recalled, they got under way the next time but left 'Salesin' behind them. They were lucky that he won once he got into the race!

We also had a false start before the concluding bumper got under way, with the Tony Mullins-trained 'Battling Boru' justifying 7/4 favouritism to win comfortably under Pat Murphy. This four-yearold son of ' Brian Boru' is owned by a syndicate from Athlone, Co. Westmeath, and, having run third behind Larry Byrne's 'Har Will' at Limerick on the previous occasion, he did this well.

Mullins indicated afterwards that ' we think that he has a good future, I'd imagine that he will have a breather now'. This horse comes from the family of 'Galmoy' and ' Dance Beat' and could well be one for the future.

The four flat races on the card saw a couple of the biggest yards in the country send out a winner, with Dermot Weld's yard opening proceedings when 'Treasure The Cross', a three-year-old filly by ' Cape Cross', gained a winning bracket under Pat Smullen at 2/1. This filly will be tried again in similar company but, given that her dam is a half sister to 'High Chapperall', she is a great broodmare prospect for Seán and Anne Coughlan who raced the great 'Ridgewood Pearl' in the past.

The remaining races saw Kevin Prendergast and Declan McDonagh team up to win with 'Cloud Fire', a four-year-old by 'Refuse to Bend', at 10/1, Shark Hanlon and Martin Harley with the threeyear-old 'Choisir' filly, 'One For Joules', at 8/1, and Paul Deegan and Fran Berry with 'Midnight Soprano', the winning 5/2 favourite being a three-year-old filly by 'Celtic Swing'.

Racing concluded on a winning note and hopes are that we will all return on August 6 for another helping of evening racing at Bettyville.