Thrills and spills as Punchestown meeting takes its toll of man and horse
Punchestown 1913 was more like a battlefield than a racecourse with a litany of casualties and injuries to man and horse. And that was only on the racetrack – there were also accidents and episodes on the approach roads to the course as well as in neighbouring town of Naas.
But first to the drama on the track. The Kildare Observer’s Punchestown correspondent reported on a casualty – a Major McTaggart, who rode a horse named Rolling Pin in the Downshire Plate, and who had his collar bone broken and sustained other bruises when the horse fell. He was attended to by Dr D.P.Coady, surgeon to the meeting. Another entrant in the same race got no further than the first obstacle. Captain Stacpoole, through the falling of Kilnacross (a pure white horse) at the first fence in the Downshire, dislocated his shoulder.
And another casualty was recorded in the Prince of Wales Plate on the opening day when a horse named Mountmills fell and its jockey J. Ward was reported to “unfortunately” have had his leg broken.
The casualty list multiplied. Mr. J. C. Kelly, who had his knee injured on the first day, got a bad shaking when his mount Roland Lee fell in the Conyngham Cup at the double bank in the Conyngham Cup. A new form of transport was emerging at Punchestown in that a motor ambulance was available to convey the injured rider to a Dublin private hospital. A message came to Kildare Observer office before it went to print updating news on Mr Kelly’s injury: “Just before going to press we learned that Mr. J. C. Kelly had no bones broken, and was progressing quite well.”
The toll on the unfortunate horses was as heavy as that of their human riders. A horse with surely the most ironic name at the meeting “Happy Days” was killed on the first day. Four more horses were killed on the second day. One named “The Miner” tried to do his own bit of mining by trying to jump a double bank in the one leap and instead fell on his head, breaking his neck. His jockey the celebrated G Brabazon had a “wonderful escape” despite his mount’s fatal fall. Curiously two of the other horses to die on the course both carried the same number 37 in their respective races.
Some kind of context to the equine casualties can be given in the fact that a total of 191 horses ran at the meeting.
The equine death toll was not limited to the track with “one fine hackney horse” dying in harness on the approach road to Punchestown. This may be the same animal referred to in another report headed “Accidents on the Friary Road”. The item describes how a horse belonging to a Dublin jarvey dropped dead near Oakfield as it was being driven to the racecourse. Constable Wright was on the scene almost immediately and rendered all the assistance in his power. There were four people seated on the carriage but all escaped unhurt.
Equally fortunate were the passengers on another jarvey car where the wheel broke while it was clipping along but there were no serious consequences. It seems as if travelling to Punchestown was only for the brave such was the number of “hair-breadth” escapes logged in the environs of the course. In one case a young horse attached to a hackney car took fright at the noise of a motor-cycle and bolted, doing some damage but “fortunately not serious”.
The meeting of 1913 marked something of a watershed in that the new-fangled motor car began to impact on the traffic converging on the east Kildare track. Where before Punchestown traffic had been confined to horsepower in the literal sense now horsepower in its mechanical form was beginning to encroach on the scene. The Kildare Observer reported that “The journey to and from the course was not without the unusual incident, and accident.” This was despite what were described as “the excellent arrangements” overseen by the RIC County Inspector, Mr. Kerry Supple, who was to become something of a legend in his own lifetime as a long serving RIC officer in Co Kildare.
The unreliability of the early motor cars – not to mention the crazed driving habits of their owners – led to many incidents. In one the breaking of an axle on a car near the course caused what must be the first pile-up in Kildare motoring history when five cars were involved in the subsequent collision. A lady passenger was thrown through a glass windscreen and sustained “ugly cuts” about the face and head. She was taken to the ambulance room in the stand enclosure where the busiest man in Punchestown – Dr Coady – stitched up her wounds.
The growing number of motor cars in the Ireland of 1913 was matched by the appearance on the scene of a new organisation – the Automobile Association or AA. This body came in for much praise from an Observer columnist who said its patrolmen had rendered useful service to a number of members in trouble. It was recorded that one member whose car was “actually lost” had it restored to him by an AA patrol who discovered it in a field. Quite how the car got from its parking place to the field was not explained. As well as coming to the aid of motorists who had managed to lose their cars the AA men were also involved in the “regulation of traffic at dangerous points.”
The involvement of the AA patrols in directing traffic was not for want of policemen on duty at the meeting. A force of six District Inspectors, 8 Head-constables, and no less than 186 Constables were deployed “for the preservation of the peace during Punchestown Races.” This amounts to a quite enormous contingent of 200 policemen on duty for the two-day festival – a much higher deployment of police than ever required by the Garda Síochana in modern times. Series no: 327.