Sometimes in life when you least expect it you meet people that brighten your day due to their love of life or positivity. Take a man who was given 6 months to live in 2003 but defied medical odds to squeeze another 11 years out of his life. A cyst described as being 'the size of a golfball' was apparantly removed over a decade ago. Think you've got problems? Add a quadruple bypass to your list. A procedure to unclog arteries that were seemingly 97 per cent blocked followed 5 years later in 2008. Did I mention this lad also had diabetes and issues with his lungs? They're not the reason I remember Oliver Brady. I remember the trainer who lit up the parade ring with his love of life and beating the odds. In racing and his own personal world. His tireless work raising money for the Shabra Charity which he established with Rita Shah. He had his first winner in Navan in 1985 with Barr's Hill. He may not have been in the winners enclosure nearly as often as some of the sport's leading lights, but racing is worse off due to his passing. The Co. Monaghan trainer aged 75 was first diagnosed with cancer in 1995. 19 years later he passed away in his sleep. No doubt he would have taken those odds. He will be remembered at Listowel's racing festival. In thinking about a song to remember him I recalled a tune from Kerry rockers Walking On Cars, (which you should check out) to provide the soundtrack to this Today FM tribute which featured a famous tip he gave me at the Galway Races last year. He wasn't overly familiar with the Ian Dempsey lad when the Today FM morning jock rang him to follow up on the chances of Zafaqand in Sligo. To quote Oliver himself, as predicted 'he pissed in'. In the parade ring in Sligo and live on At the Races the Monaghan man laid the challenge down to Demsey to call him again to celebrate the following morning. Dempsey didn't disappoint.
