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Four days at the races
THE Punchestown Festival has never needed a hardsell before. The annual racing event is one of the top events on the Irish social calendar. But inhouse squabbling and the cancellation of last year's festival due to track problems has almost brought the race course to its knees.
Punchestown is controlled by a trust on behalf of the 130 members of the Kildare Hunt Club. Their nominees share the board with representatives of Horse Racing Ireland. There has always been a division between the Punchestown Management Committee and the hunt, or the hunting element and the racing element. Amazingly the piggy in the middle of these two factions, Punchestown Chief Executive Charlie Murless, has survived the recent dramas and managed not only to soldier ahead with a Euro25 million development project, but to keep his job as well.
Charlie Murless is the consummate politician. He is a master of saying something without saying anything at all. Charlie looks like an overgrown public school boy, with a big mop of hair and plumy accent to boot. He's the consummate gentleman who opens doors, buys champagne and flatters endlessly. But he's not as one dimensional as he first appears. A 'Tim Nice But Dim' could not have managed to keep their head above water during the recent Punchestown crises.
The Punchestown Festival, which takes place from April 23 to 26, is the racecourse's key four days of the year. The loss of the festival last year was primarily due to drainage work that had been done on the racecourse. The problem was slightly exacerbated by foot and mouth. The test that could have proved the suitability of the track was not possible because horses couldn't travel to Punchestown to do a preliminary run on the track.
The problems began in October 2000, when two horses fell because of the softness of the ground. The Punchestown Committee decided to embark on a drainage programme, but, in hindsight, should have treated one half of the track in the first year and the second half in the second year. They lost well in excess of two million pounds from the cancellation, as well as the knock on effect on the rest of the year's activities.
Charlie Murless did not get the blame. Instead, the Hunt Club scapegoated its chairman James Osborne and the vice chairman Dermot Cox. Why was that? "Why didn't I get blamed? I don't know. Well I suppose to be honest the simple answer is I didn't do anything wrong." But neither did James Osborne by the sound of things. "But I wasn't coming up for election. I dare say there are a lot of people within and without the Punchestown family who blame me." James Osborne lost his reelection by just two votes.
"I think there was a lack of communication between one side and another," continues Murless. "Members of the hunt have the right to elect their chairman and vice chairman and indeed their directors. And James Osborne and Dermot were regrettably not reelected. James Osborne and Dermot Cox singlehandedly guided the board through what was a very complicated development. It's very regrettable they are not there now. Certainly what they have achieved is there for everybody to see."
This "achievement" is an agricultural exhibition centre that will turn Punchestown into an alternative RDS, and perfect venue for outdoor concerts. The money for the Euro25 million development came primarily from Horse Racing Ireland, as well as Bord Failte, the existing Punchestown kitty and the department of agriculture. Obviously, after such a big investment, Horse Racing Ireland wanted to make their presence felt in Punchestown. Hence the appointment of three new members of the board, who Murless refers to as the "Three wise men" Denis Brosnan, the chairman of Horse Racing Ireland, Brian Kavanagh the chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland, and Michael Oswald who is recognised internationally as a very capable racing administrator.
After years of battle, the racing element now has the upper hand over the hunting element. The Hunt Club also have a new chairman, an Englishman called Nick Bullman. "He's a hunting enthusiast who lives locally," says Murless. "He hasn't been in the country a long time, but he obviously has a great interest in Punchestown and has garnered a lot of local support. He also has a very successful business career in the financial services."
Bullman obviously has an extensive fan club. It's not often a "blow in" would be nominated to such a lofty position,[url=http://nikefree.mobilejeti.com]nike free[/url]. "Having Bullman and the three wise men will balance the books." No doubt the "three wise men" are grateful to have a businessminded person representing the hunt. This year the festival will be the biggest ever with new sponsors and the highest Festival prize money to date Euro1.4 million.
The Punchestown board need to concentrate on making the racetrack profitable, regardless of who they rub up the wrong way. "This year it is absolutely vital that the festival goes well," says Murless. "The recent political shenanigans were very unnecessary. The three wise man have got the ship back on an even keel. What they didn't want to see was a small group of well intentioned individuals potentially damaging the place irreparably."
Becoming a "well intentioned" member of the Kildare Hunt Club is no easy task. Membership is not passed down through the family. You have to be a landowner and a hunting enthusiast. Blackballing is rife. The recent debacle is not the first time the Hunt Club has squabbled within and without its ranks. Over 40 years ago there was a big fallout over the introduction of a bush fence course which some members of the hunt felt would ruin the race track's tradition in flat racing.
Woodchester boss Craig McKinney was given the boot during another minor war. "The last time the Hunt Club had a row was when they threw Craig McKinney out, who in my book is a lovely guy. They threw him out because they thought he was trying to buy the place to sell it," says Charlie Murless. The hunting contingent have their own room on racing days and wear their own badge. Charlie Murless has never been a member of the hunt, although his mother is. He's not even allowed in to the Hunt Club's private room on racing days. He's not interested in going either, which may be part of his problem. Would Charlie be blackballed if he applied for membership?
"I don't know, it would never be one of my ambitions to apply for membership for the Kildare Hunt club. I'm far to busy, and I don't hunt." He also lives in Dublin 4, not Kildare. His wife, Rhona Blake is a popular and successful career woman who is more likely to be found judging the Louis Vuitton best dressed lady competition than mucking out horses. Most ironically of all, Charlie Murless is allergic to horses.
He was brought up on the Curragh where his father was a race horse trainer and his mother hunted. He was shipped off to boarding school in England at the age of seven (hence the accent). He worked for Doncaster racecourse in England as their marketing director and then for Goffs. But Charlie Murless always commuted home to Ireland at weekends. He was one of the racing set, but his allergy to horses meant that he did not lead a "horsey" lifestyle. He met Rhona, a city girl and PR executive, when he was 26 at the Blood Stock Breeders Ball in Kildare.
"It was love at first sight, absolutely electric," he says. There was plenty of competition for the bright and bubbly Rhona Blake, who has never been lacking in admirers. She was working for John Saunders in Pembroke Communications at the time. (That company has since been bought over by Fleishman Hillard Saunders in a deal that made Rhona a millionaire.) Charlie was smitten, and Rhona, forever the practical joker, certainly gave him a run for his money.
"I rang her up after the ball and we met in the Shelbourne Hotel. She brought along a friend. We had a drink and then she and the friend said they had to leave. We walked out and there was the biggest Mercedes Benz outside the front of the Shelbourne. The friend walked around to the driver's side and told Rhona to get in. And I got into my little Volvo feeling very small indeed. Of course it wasn't their Merc at all. Rhona told her friend to pretend it was hers."
Charlie divulges this information towards the end of our lunch in the Unicorn restaurant near the Shelbourne the very place he courted Rhona. "Rhona had a great myriad of friends and we used to meet in the Unicorn every Saturday. There used to be Michael McDowell, Mary Finnegan, Sam Stephenson, Paul McGuinness, PJ Mara and his wife Breda, Adrian Hardiman and Paul O'Higgins. There would be nobody else in here. And me coming from a sort of racing background this was great. It was wonderful to talk to somebody about something other than fetlocks and saddles. I was horsey but I couldn't go near the buggers." Rhona says she was impressed by Charlie's sophistication. He used to buy pink champagne and stay in a restaurant from lunch through to dinner.
They married in 1993. "There was no such thing as a proposal in those days," he jokes. "We just decided to get married." Did you know then she was going to be so successful? "Absolutely, but I never think of money that way. She's a very complicated mixture of discipline and fun."
Rhona may be a strong woman, but Charlie insists she doesn't wear the pants in their relationship. "I have enormous respect for Rhona, I love her dearly. Who wears the pants? I'd say we both have one leg in the pants." They have three beautiful children, but no pets due to Charlie's allergy. Two legs good, Four legs bad? The proof will be in this year's Punchestown festival.