Racing: Taaffe takes his chance to be man of the moment

It can never go wrong for the trainer of Emotional Moment, Ireland's strongest fancy for the Tote Gold Trophy at Newbury tomorrow. He can never have an empty glass or be left on a hard shoulder with a wounded car.

For while those in the Republic may not have much truck with sovereignty they do have near Royal figures of their own and on that score Tom Taaffe will never be a needy man.

Tom is the son of Pat, a man whose good fortune it was to be around when a horse called Arkle was looking for a jockey. They became Gaelic immortality on six legs.

Tom never found a partner of similar accomplishment when he was in the saddle, though he did manage to win on consecutive days at the Grand National meeting on Arthur Moore's Feroda in the late 1980s. At the Cheltenham Festival, Taaffe Jnr was a bridesmaid of Elizabeth Taylor frequency.

As a trainer, Tom Taaffe has just one British success to his name, a horse which apparently came from a Kiwi operatic background. Awa-O-Te-Koa conquered at Hexham in October of 1999, by which time the winner's trainer had held a licence for five seasons.

But now we have Emotional Moment, who follows hot on the even warmer heels of the Co Kildare trainer's Kicking King, who won at Punchestown on Saturday to earn quotes of around 20-1 for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle.

"Emotional Moment appears to be in very good form and if they get the drizzly rain they forecast it would be a help and I would expect him to finish in the first four," Taaffe said yesterday. "He's improving along the right lines and Saturday will tell us more. If he comes out of the race in one piece he'll run in the County Hurdle or the Coral Hurdle at the Festival."

Taaffe has already won the race within the race to secure the services of Norman Williamson. The jockey could also have ridden another Irish challenger in Jessica Harrington's Spirit Leader, now to be the rather inappropriately named mount of Timmy Murphy, as well as Nicky Henderson's Chauvinist.

The Lambourn trainer is still trying to muddle through a dislocated season following the ankle injury which has kept stable jockey Mick Fitzgerald out of the saddle for over two weeks. The definite booking for Seven Barrows at this stage is Marcus Foley for the well-fancied Non So. Foley, a claiming rider, will take 3lb off Non So's back.

Emotional Moment and Non So will be 7lb and 3lb respectively out of the handicap if Martin Pipe's Copeland attempts to become the first horse in 39 years – the first since Ryan Price won the then Schweppes with Rosyth in 1963 and 1964 – to win the Tote Gold Trophy back-to-back.

With that caveat in place there has been a third horse well pruned in the run-up to tomorrow's race in the shape of Philip Hobbs's In Contrast, who was reduced still further to 13-2 (from 8-1) by William Hill yesterday.

For once a trainer did not express bewilderment at the run of betting support for one of his horses. "Rightly so," Hobbs said. "He was one of the top novices last year and hopefully he's coming good at the right time."

The Minehead trainer, who sent out Rooster Booster to finish second to Copeland 12 months ago, is praying for good ground. "He's very well but I hope the rain stays away," he said. "The better the ground the better for him."

* Channel 4 has pulled the plug on its half-hour Lunchtime Attheraces programme which will end on 7 March five months after it was launched. The decision follows disappointing viewing figures and doubts over the ability of racing to supply a lunchtime race during the summer months.