Pat McSweeney has made the familiar trip to Cheltenham from his base in Ballineen in West Cork many times. This year, however, was marked by much excitement.
After a week securing passage on the new Cork-Swansea ferry - which has endured a choppy start to business this month - McSweeney and his party set off for the festival on Tuesday night.
Dorset Square, however - the horse he co-owns with Gerry Quinn - was there before him, after a much longer journey.
For the past year, after joining Willie Mullins's yard, he's shown real promise, enjoying wins where once there was only embarrassment for the owners.
This week when I talked to the West Cork man in the office of his family-run tarmac company, McSweeney was looking forward to Dorset Square making up for a heart-breaking last-place finish at Cheltenham last year, under a different trainer.
Yesterday when McSweeney took a call on the way to the racecourse, he confirmed the horse would not get it's much deserved shot at redemption. "It was balloted out," he said.
Essentially, what happened is that West Cork duo entered into a draw for a race, hoping that sufficient numbers of other runners would withdraw, as normal, and that they’d earn their slot. Not so, however.
Despite the inconvenience, expense and disappointment of not seeing the horse run, earlier this week McSweeney put forward the philosophical outlook found in the best owners.
"If he doesn’t run this time, sure there’s no harm done," he shrugged.
A big one, but it’s just another gamble in a week strewn with beaten dockets.
