A Bolt From The Blue November 17, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Other Sports.Tags: Dublin, Brian O'Driscoll, China, Tiger Woods, Olympic Games, Beijing, Jack Nicklaus, Usain Bolt, Edinburgh, Sea The Stars, Kelli Whyte, Tim Montgomery, Marion Jones, Athletics, Sprinting, Olympics, World Championships, Berlin, Cheat, Gold Medal, Sydney, The Cube, Swimming, Pele, Maradonna, David Campese, Willie John McBride, Ben Hogan, Kaka, BALCO, Flo Jo, Ben Johnson, Doping, Drugs, Iron Curtain, Steroids, Lightning Bolt
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Usain Bolt. No more appropriate name could there be for the fastest man on the planet, with the possible exception of Flashy McSpeed. The Lightning Bolt. The slickest, coolest, quickest cat on the block. From the preening and posing – done with a boyish glee and bravado suitable to someone who genuinely is the best and knows it – to the globally-recognised lightning-strike celebration, Usain Bolt has every star quality in spades. Not only that, but he is a winner, and everyone loves a winner. Everyone loves watching someone outdo themselves, exceed expectation time and again, win not just easily but in mind-blowing fashion.
In Dublin Airport, on 20th August 2009, I sat in a bar waiting for a flight to Edinburgh and watched, admired and applauded as the world record for 200m was smashed by the brightest star in the athletics galaxy. The Berlin crowd went wild, everyone in our bar moved a little closer to the screen to check and recheck that time. 19.19 seconds. “Sweet Jesus!” “Incredible” and the wonderfully understated and unnecessary “Fuck, that’s fast.”
Athletics has had a rough time of it of late. Doping scandals are not quite as rife as they were during the horror years of the 80s and early 90s, when the likes of Ben Johnson and his 1988 Olympic 100m co-finalists were almost all disgraced, Flo-Jo’s superhuman times and early retirement left more than a whiff of suspicion around her greatness, and the Iron Curtain nations spewed out wave after wave of specially-created, steroid-filled robots. Yet they are still there, and still claim the high-profile names.
One such name is Marion Jones, an athlete universally admired at her peak for her enduring spirit, undeniable talent and apparent “clean-ness”. My granny – a huge fan of Jones – and I were surely not alone when Marion was found to be a cheat and forced to hand over her Olympic medals from Sydney. We had watched those games and marvelled at this engaging and gifted young woman who had carried all before her in a 5-medal haul. She was a shining beacon for fair play, or so we all thought. Then, in 2005, she was brought into disrepute along with the likes of Kelli White and Tim Montgomery in the course of the BALCO investigation, finally confessing to taking performance-enhancing drugs prior to the Olympics in 2000. She forfeited all results dating back to September of that year.
BALCO played a massive role in the continuing sorry tale of athletics cheats. Nowadays, many people watch athletics with a certain cynicism. Any athlete who displays great muscle mass, a sudden burst of form or an unprecedented success are sneered at with suspicion. Certainly, the scenes in the Cube at Beijing 2008 left many feeling cold and hollow, as China swept to gold medals left, right and centre, especially in the women’s events, some achieved by swimmers heretofore ranked beyond the top-20 in their discipline and by phenomenal margins. Witness again the furore surrounding Caster Semenya at the World Championships only a few short months ago, and it seems no champion is safe from the finger of suspicion and the taint of rumour.
Except, possibly, Usain Bolt. When a champion is JUST THAT GOOD, he is even more heavily scrutinised than those who have come before. He cannot go anywhere without being heavily drug tested; there is too much riding on him. With athletics on the ropes, Bolt is the Messiah viewed by all who love the sport as its saving grace. Here is a charismatic character, a surprisingly articulate and down-to-Earth speaker, and a superhuman runner. He is as Sea The Stars is to flat racing – the pinnacle of athleticism thus far, the greatest that has yet to be seen. He strolls past high quality fields which, in any other era, would be breaking records of their own. He is, quite simply, the perfect sprinter, with a long, easy stride and more gears than a spare-part shop.
So Usain Bolt CANNOT be a cheat. It is too important for athletics that he is a freak of nature (in the nicest possible way!) and nothing more. People who don’t always watch athletics will often watch the Olympics. It is rare that the World Championships would garner even half that attention, yet there were millions glued to the races featuring Bolt, both in that airport bar and around the world. He is the hottest ticket in town, the biggest draw the sport knows and the most vital part of an uncertain future. People WANT him to win, because they want to be able to say “I saw Bolt”. And they want him to be clean, because they want to be able to say “I saw Bolt, and he was the best, beyond doubt”.
If Bolt is clean, he will be remembered as a god by all who saw him, just as golfers remember Nicklaus or Hogan and will remember Woods, just as footballers remember Pelé or Maradonna and will remember Kaka, just as rugby players remember Willie John or Campese and will remember O’Driscoll. If he is clean, athletics will grow again, with new trust invested in its biggest names and a new generation of competitors all inspired to compete in one of the world’s oldest sporting traditions with a spirit of fair play on which the Olympics were founded. If he is clean, he will have single-handedly saved a dying sport, and a great sport.
If Bolt is a cheat…well, maybe it’s time for the majority of competitors to give up the game, because there will never be any joy in competing against peers you can no longer trust in front of dwindling crowds who, quite frankly, no longer care.
Upheaval October 24, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Life.add a comment
Right now, my life is undergoing a fairly large upheaval. Well, several large upheavals. Each one would probably require its own individual blog post. In fact, each one would need its own website. Life outside the bubble of college is quite different to the micro-climate within it. I pierced the bubble back in June of this year, it collapsed and rained down around me in glittering rainbow shards, leaving me standing, blinking, open to the sky. Rather than being encased in the bubble, now I have to blow them for myself…
Me-Tube Famous! October 7, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Comedy, Life, Travel.Tags: CheekTV, Cheeky, Gary Caplehorne, London, Paris, Purple Puppet, Youtube
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So, I have reached London after my trip to Paris, and have had the pleasure of making a video with a PROPER Youtube star, Gary Caplehorne of CheekTV and his purple puppet (not a euphemism), Cheeky - www.youtube.com/cheektv . Gary and Cheeky have also just been nominated for a Youtube Award by www.youtube.com/daveyboyz so do vote for them! And enjoy the video, I certainly enjoyed making it.
Sea The Stars: The Greatest October 5, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Other Sports.Tags: 2000 Guineas, Aiden O'Brien, Alandi, Ballydoyle, Champion Stakes, Christophe Soumillon, Christopher Tsui, Derby, Eclipse, Epsom, Group One, Horse Racing, John Clarke, John McStay, John Oxx, Juddmonte, Longchamp, Mick Kinane, Mohammad Ali, Nashwan, Newmarket, Paris, Prix Cadran, Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Racing Post, Rock Of Gibraltar, Roger Federer, Sea The Stars, Stacelita, Tiger Woods, Usain Bolt
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Mick Kinane and Sea The Stars are welcomed into the winner's enclosure.
What a day. What a horse.
Sometimes there aren’t enough words to explain the impossible. Sometimes there aren’t enough rounds of applause, enough cheers, enough smiles to express the brilliant. Sometimes there isn’t a way of comparing sporting achievements fairly and accurately.
Well, to hell with it. Who needs comparisons when you have witnessed the incomparable?
The multiple variations on the word “stars” and its accompanying clichés and adages have been practically exhausted by every sports page, every tabloid headline writer, every racing commentator, over the last six months. Six months which changed the history of horse-racing; six months which saw flat racing transformed from the sober, aging brother of the two strands of the sport into a brimming cauldron of passion, desire, belief; six months which forged a legend.
It was my unique pleasure today to be present at Longchamp race-track on the edge of Paris, where I witnessed Sea The Stars seal the the crowning moment in a career of crowning moments. His victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe was what almost every Irish and British supporter of horseracing wanted to see, what many of those French racegoers at the track today NEEDED to see.
Sea The Stars does need to be seen to be believed. The parade ring at Longchamp is quite small as it is, but it was packed with owners and onlookers, while the amphitheatre around it was seething with craning bodies. Everyone, even his rivals, wanted to see Sea The Stars, to take a photo, to see this Irish wonder-horse who has laid waste to a landscape of Group Ones. The pointing, the whispering: “That’s him. – He’s the greatest horse ever. – And there’s Mick Kinane. – 50, you know. – 50?! – What a fine animal”.
When he crossed the line after the most nerve-wracking of contests, my heart almost burst out of my chest and my brother, father and I dissolved into a teary celebratory clamber of a hug. The French couple beside me went from bemused to understanding, reaching over to shake my hand and congratulate us: This was history being written with a full stop. This was something we will never see again.
For anyone who doesn’t know, let me try explain what this horse has achieved. Described by his trainer as “a machine”, he is unbeaten in 7 starts dating back into last year. He began the year by winning the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. He has won the Epsom Derby, a career in itself for many horses – that double hadn’t been accomplished since Nashwan two decades ago. He has defeated many horses who are recognised as world-class, who would, in any other year, be lauded as heroes themselves in sealing the Eclipse, the Juddmonte and the Champion Stakes. He has won a Group One race in EVERY month this year since May. Today’s win made it 6 Group Ones in 6 months.
Many horses win Group Ones. A few have won a comparable amount to Sea The Stars. Rock Of Gibraltar won 7, in fact, over the course of two seasons. But no horse has ever won the Guineas-Derby-Arc trio. No horse has won so many great races over so many distances (from a mile to a mile and a half – Rock Of Gibraltar was a pure miler). And no horse has EVER, nor will they again, win SIX IN SIX STARTS IN SIX MONTHS. That is like winning all four of tennis or golf’s majors and two more. That is winning 6 FA Cup Finals. That is 6 Olympic Gold medals. That is 6 All-Ireland championships. 6 Oscars. 6 Nobel Prizes. 6 terms in the White House. Sea The Stars has ripped common sense and wisdom to shreds. If there is to be an end to history, a moment after which such moments may never be again, that was today for flat-racing.
That’s not all though. For my family, it is particularly emotional to see the success and the deserved praise for John Oxx, the trainer of Sea The Stars. John is as quiet and unassuming a man as you could ever meet. He is regularly described as professorial by proud adjective-wielders in The Racing Post. He will come home from a successful days racing and will be dozing on the sofa with a half-finished glass of wine beside him while his many friends will be reliving the day’s events around him.

Irish fans travelled in large numbers to witness the moment a legend was sealed.
Irish and indeed, European racing as a whole, has been dominated in recent years by the powerhouse that is Ballydoyle and Aiden O’Brien. It was in danger of stagnating if no one came to challenge that dominance – like the Tiger effect on the US PGA tour. Then, two years ago, John Oxx was trusted by a young man named Christopher Tsui to train this horse, a gift from his mother. John honed the animal and placed it in the capable hands of Mick Kinane, at 50 years of age, a veteran jockey with a magical ability and understanding of horses.
Bingo. With that, racing had its own holy trinity, a tripartite alliance which has had everything thrown at it by Ballydoyle, by Godolphin, by anyone who is anyone. But it has survived, and indeed, rebutted every challenge. John, his wife Caitríona and children, Aoife, Deirdre and Kevin, have been wonderful friends to us. Tsui’s advisor in all these matters, John Clarke, is my brother’s godfather and his son, Jonathan is Killian’s best friend. The three families, Oxx, Clarke and McStay, with their three Johns, have been inseparable since I’ve been on this earth. Today was a small celebration of that, as much as a massive celebration of the magical Sea The Stars.
He didn’t have it easy today. He took a couple of furlongs to settle and Mick Kinane had to drop him back into the field. As they made the long bend at the far end of the track, it seemed that the wheels were falling off the wagon. Ballydoyle’s pacemakers were streaking ahead, while Sea The Stars was boxed in amongst the pack. Into the straight. Still no gap. Please. Please. It has to come.
It came. Barely. A chink of an escape came on the inside of the field along the running rail, one which might close as quickly as it had opened. But that split second was all it took. Kinane and his mount saw the light and charged straight at it. Within a couple hundred yards, he had seized the lead and, with another furlong and a half to go, it was happening. The field pushed on, but Sea The Stars held them at arm’s length and took the winning post to cheers and rapture unlike any other.
The same French punters who had mocked and whistled at Kinane and Sea The Stars as he left the parade ring – they had their hopes pinned on Christophe Soumillon and his wonder-filly Stacelita – rose and acclaimed the confirmed hero as he returned. The tricolour flapping in the wind about the jockey was green, white and gold, not red, white and blue. The McStays marched straight into the ring past security with the air of winners – feeling like winners too – to share the moment. To be in the midst of a reception like that was special. The tears were as copious as the cheers.
All the while, Sea The Stars breather deeply, drank from his bucket and looked about with those knowing eyes as if to say “What? I told you so. You didn’t think I’d lose, did you?” He is Ali. He is Federer. He is Woods. He is Bolt. He is the greatest ever. Ask anyone. If they weren’t sure before today, they will be now. Best ever? Well, there’s no way of comparing…but who needs comparisons.
Sea The Stars: Nothing compares to you.

- The Oxx team and friends pose for the clamouring photographers with the champion.
PS: I make no apologies for the shaky photos – it was a day for shaky hands! And, as a footnote, John and Mick teamed up to win the Prix Cadran – beating another great champion, Yeats - with Alandi later this evening to cap a wonderful day in the Parisien sun.
PPS: All Sea The Stars’ Group One wins are on Youtube – the Arc is below.
Meat Sung! September 26, 2009
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Homemade meat sung!

- Posted using MobyPicture.com
A Betrayal Of Penguins August 26, 2009
Posted by bazmcstay in Uncategorized.Tags: A Betrayal Of Penguins, Comedy, Edinburgh, Fringe Festival, Improv She Wrote, John Gallagher, Matthew Smyth, Sweet Heart, The List, Three Weeks, Trinity College Dublin
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While in Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival over the weekend, I had the joy of seeing two good friends of mine, John Gallagher and Matthew Smyth, performing their comedy show, “A Betrayal Of Penguins” at The Sweet Heart. Having performed with the guys in “Improv, She Wrote”, the Trinity College Dublin improv troupe which we established this year, I have some experience first-hand of how downright funny they are. They invariably double-team beautifully in improv games together and it was only natural that they would bring those same talents along with their obvious chemistry to the Fringe. The show is very funny, mixing their own individual stand-up routines with sketches, improvisation and scripted double-acting. If you want other people’s opinions, try The List and Three Weeks, two respected Festival guides who each bestowed 4-star reviews on the guys. While there, I also took the liberty of filming some of the promo work on the Royal Mile and the show itself on Sunday 23rd of August. This Youtube video is the result. Enjoy, and look out for “A Betrayal Of Penguins” in the future – they’re certainly not endangered.









