Naas warm embrace a fleeting but fabulous reminder of what a great sport this is

There’s nothing like familiarity’s warm embrace to counter the onset of gloom. These are days to be grateful for small mercies but there was nothing insignificant about the restorative, albeit short-lived, balm of Ireland’s first Flat turf fixture at Naas on Monday.

And what a balm it was. We may be locked out of the racecourse and locked down in our homes, but some things never change. Jim Bolger had his juveniles primed for the off, as he always does, while Aidan O’Brien’s horses were some way off peak fitness. It was ever thus.

No televised racing had been watched since the curtain descended on Cheltenham. This unprecedented drought was governed by the coronavirus maelstrom that rendered any sporting activity trivial by comparison. Yet while the Naas grandstand was dark, the message from the course was crystal clear. It is all too easy to underestimate racing’s resonance within our daily lives.