Bookie gets back in the saddle

Bookie hops back in the saddle


Mike Finnerty

THE story goes that you never see a bookmaker on a bicycle. But on April 24, if everything goes to plan, you will get to see a well-known Mayo bookmaker riding a horse!
John ‘Scoop’ Stagg, the Ballindine-based independent bookie, is in heavy training at the moment as he prepares to make his comeback in the saddle, twenty years after he last rode in a competitive race.
Those of us who had the good fortune to be at the Ballinrobe Races on the days when John rode ‘Tricky Nellie’ in a series of bumper races back in the early 1990s will never forget it. Now, after hanging up his Hollymount jersey and football boots, John (37) has decided to take on a new challenge and he has been seen pounding the roads around South Mayo recently with training partners, James ‘Iron Man’ Regan and Paul O’Malley.
John’s plan is to be fighting fit and ready to make the weight by the time the biggest charity race of the year at Punchestown rolls around on April 24. All the monies raised go to the Punchestown Kidney Research Fund and each rider who signs up has to raise €1,000 to take part. So if you’d like to make a donation to help John help Kidney Research, just call (086) 8597020.
He will also be organising some fund-raisers over the next few months, including a charity cycle, so watch this space!
Darren Cawley from Westport, one of the country’s most prominent campaigners for organ donation and a man who has taken part in the European Transplant & Dialysis Games, has also been helping John to make his dream a reality.As far as John’s ‘handlers’ have been able to establish, this will be the first time a Mayo man has rode in this prestigious charity race on the last day of the Punchestown Festival.