Annalong Horseshoe is this weekend
Annalong 2006
One of the most famous races in the Northern Ireland racing calendar takes place on Saturday. The Annalong Horseshoe has been running since 1982 has such greats as Robbie Bryson, Deon McNeilly and 10 times Annalong winner Brian Ervine amongst its past champions…
The formidable range
NIMRA writer Ian Taylor gives a brief history of the event:
Next Saturday’s race is one of the classics in our calendar, having been run every year since 1982. Over about 13 miles with 5200 feet of climb it is very runable over most of the route, starting at Dunnywater, Annalong River Valley at 11 am.
The race records are held by Robbie Bryson with 1:56:57 set way back in 1996 with Fiona Maxwell holding the current ladies’ record of 2:28:50 from 2007. Brian Ervine held a monopoly on the race up to 2004 with winners since then being Deon McNeilly, Brian, Des Woods & Gary Bailey but only Des has come remotely near breaking two hours with 2:00:48 in 2007. Perhaps the route is more cut up now, especially on the descent of Binnian, making records more difficult.
NI mountain legend Brian Ervine
The 1982 Annalong Horseshoe was the first one, organised as a long race replacement for the Mourne Wall Walk. The race was won by Stanley Graham in 2:20:25, with Jim Hayes second, joint third between Dermot McGonigle & Mike McNulty, with other competitors including Willie John Brown, Noel Douglas & Ian Parke. The race has been held every year since, with a bad weather route once when snow covered the hills in May, but the proper course was raced later the same year. I think Jim Hayes was the early race organiser, despite running in it, with Denis Rankin taking over for many years and more recently BARF club.
