Steve Palmer: Unique Laytown is one of the best sporting spectacles on Earth

Laytown sounds like somewhere a lonely divorcee might visit in the hope of securing a much-needed fillip, but it is, in fact, home to the second-greatest horse racing meeting available on planet Earth.

Mondays rarely figure highly on a human's list of Best Days of the Week – Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays tend to dominate proceedings – but September 16 this year served up a Monday for the ages thanks to Laytown racing. I felt extremely blessed to be part of the cheerful throng who enjoyed a six-race card under the County Meath sunshine.

The location for this once-a-year gathering is spectacular. Laytown is the only race meeting run on a beach under the Rules of Racing in Ireland and Great Britain. There was a delay to the first race this year because the tide did not go out as swiftly as anticipated, but the lethargic Lord (or whoever else takes charge of tides) was a hero to those who were still battling for car-parking spots outside the venue. Laytown had attracted the dictionary definition of a bumper crowd.