Two disasters in one day!
Twas 30th May 2004, the semi-finals of the Derby, I had taken bets galore on that years Derby on Betfair but not one penny did I lay on Premier Fantasy - he looked the business having run Wimbledon perfectly.
It was half term for the kids so we had booked our usual ferry trip over to Ireland to spend the week at our cottage in Co.Cork, we almost caught the earlier ferry and my Dad had thought about flying over the day before and meeting us at the cottage. Thank heavens we and he didn't, the sequence of events that happened that Saturday morning did spell catastrophe but could have been so much worse.
We were on the 2am ferry over and at about 5am I received a call from my neighbour, Roger, in Cork "Richard, some very bad news I am afraid, your cottage has gone up in flames and has burned to the ground!"
Needless to say I couldn't beleieve what I was hearing but after Roger explained that he'd heard a big bang and opened his front door to see the cottage in flames with the firemen on their way I had to accept what he was telling me. I pressed the end of call button and punched my fist against the wall of the ferry. My Wife Clare asked what was wrong, having to explain to Clare our holiday cottage had gone up in flames, what a feckin nightmare!
We drove the 2.5 hours from Rosslare to Macroom that morning knowing that on arrival we'd see the remains of our Cottage, but words don't really explain what greeted us. The fire engine, the firemen, Garde and the remains of our perfect little Cottage.
Clare and the kids started crying and had to go to the neighbours house. I had to talk to the firemen and the Gards, we were all in shock. The general opinion was it was a Thunder Bolt! Went straight down the chimney, exploded the range and the energy created a huge fireball which exploded and proceeded to burn everything inside the Cottage. The walls of them cottages are 2 feet thick yet the force of the impact put a crack all the way through the walls.
We had no holiday clothes with us, nothing, all our holiday belongings were in the Cottage, including our 3 month old son, Jim Bobs' cot,clothes, toys etc. Everything was gone. A new kitchen was fitted only the week before and we never even saw it!
We booked in to the hotel in town for the week.
That same night Premier Fantasy was running in the semi-final of the Derby and looked to have every chance of qualifying from his heat, he was head and shoulders above the remaining Derby runners. I didn't get to see the race having the day we had, we stayed in the hotel bar and drunk ourselves to the point where we could just go to sleep and not think about the Cottage.
Only the following day did I discover that Premier Fantasy broke his hock whilst 2-3 lengths clear at the 1st bend.
Of course it could have all been a lot worse and dog racing pales in to insignificance when you consider if we'd caught the earlier ferry or if my Dad had flown over the night before all of us could have been killed. So I say I am lucky to be here! I have my family and they will always come first, there are more important things in Life than dogs! Life itself!
I'll continue this story but I have to get the gravy on!
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