Hats off to bookie who came prepared

IT'S FAIR to say that the Cork bookmaker Ellen Martin does not travel light, writes Alison Healy .

Here's what she brought to Cheltenham, and bear in mind that it was a four-day festival: "14 good hats, 10 kind-of-trendy ones, 20 fur ones. Half of my stuff had to come in somebody's car and I brought the other half," she confessed. "I have 12 to 15 pairs of shoes with me. One of the fellas said yesterday, 'Ellen, there's only four days racing' . . . I said 'I know, but I need a choice'. That's the way I am in my life. I need a choice."

She gave herself even more choice yesterday morning when she visited the shopping arcade and bought three more hats.

As usual, the blonde bookmaker from Killeagh in east Cork stood out in the sea of darkly dressed men, in a lime-green coat, pink hat and multicoloured scarf.

She was still recovering from a close encounter with flamboyant racing pundit John McCririck when she joined the panel on the Channel 4 racing programme yesterday.

"I was going to give Big Mac a kiss on the cheek this morning but he turned around and I got it full frontal on the lips, a big wet one," she said.

"My boyfriend texted me and said 'I am never kissing you again'."

But her presence on television presented her four-year-old son Callum with a dilemma.

"He had a big problem turning off Scooby Doo to watch Mammy on Channel 4. My mother said they had a fight about it."

She was one of about 15 Irish bookmakers at the festival in what wasn't considered to a be a spectacular year for the bookies.

"We're making some profit. We are definitely covering our expenses anyway. It really is down to today if I have profit."

Dún Laoghaire bookmaker Ray Mulvaney said the bookmakers were winning but it all hinged on the final few races.

"Cheltenham is Cheltenham," he said, "but for the punters, it doesn't compare with Punchestown or Galway."

And then he gave The Irish Times an each-way tip, which came in second, and made one punter very happy indeed.

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times