Ever notice how pedigree experts can explain a success so as to make it seem inevitable – after the event. It’s a flim-flam in many ways, designed to disguise a more mundane reality which is that talent is mostly a genetic crap-shoot. But listen to enough of these experts over the next couple of weeks and you will wind up wondering what Dawn Approach is doing in the Derby at all. (more…)

Anyone think the world’s ideal? In particular, the racing world? Didn’t think so. In an ideal world, for instance, there would be no need for a debate about whether or not the Turf Club should be subsumed into HRI. Ideally it wouldn’t. But it’s only a matter of time before it is, and the result will be…probably nothing much different. (more…)

A momentous National Hunt campaign climaxes in style at Punchestown this week. It is Irish jump racing’s ultimate shop-window, a stage for the great and the good to show off their stuff to a wider audience. And come the weekend the focus will switch to the flat, which has no such shop-window at all, and really could do with one. (more…)

Student Racedays: love or loathe them, but you can’t ignore them. The latest is due at Leopardstown tonight with about 7,000 youngsters expected to pony up to go on the rip. No doubt regulars are appalled at the prospect, are maybe even prepared to stay away in protest: which means the midweek paying crowd is likely to end up dropping by say, a hundred? (more…)

The 2013 Aintree National was by any measure a triumph, most importantly because of an absence of casualties. Everything worked out great in the end, a perfect outcome for all concerned. But hands up those who feared after the first seven fences that the National had changed forever? (more…)

You know how they say you can never have too much information? Bull. And if you ever need proof that TMI can be a pain, then gear up for this Grand National week and the statistical blizzard that comes with it. (more…)

Political-Will is a buzz-phrase that can sum up a lot. Mostly it sums up the belief that things happen or don’t happen in direct proportion to the whims of those in authority. And there is no greater whim in Irish racing than prizemoney. (more…)

Hindsight might be 20-20 but even from this cushy angle it’s hard to fathom where fourteen Irish trained winners came from at Cheltenham 2013. It’s not like everything went perfectly – think Pont Alexandre – but a new record tally was still set. Perhaps the only logical conclusion to come to is that the country can’t be as financially banjaxed as everybody thinks. (more…)

Kicking the can down the road has become a zeitgeist phrase, usually applicable to tough decisions being put on the long finger, but adaptable enough to be used in connection to the always tricky question of horse-welfare and this week’s Cheltenham festival. (more…)

National Hunt fans tend to look up their financial noses at the flat when it comes to money, and how the winter sport is resolutely for the ‘small man,’ but it will be hard to argue that at Cheltenham 2013 when the vast majority of big Irish hopes will be in such a tiny minority of hands. (more…)

There was a time when rearranging racing fixtures around the calendars of other sports felt defeatist but a noticeable reversal of the attendance trend at the Hennessy meeting means it’s hard to argue with the logic anymore. (more…)

Official policy might be to plan and budget for increased attendances at Ireland’s racecourses but the on-the-ground trend appears to be remorselessly pointing towards a future where most fixtures will be viewed as little more than television fodder. (more…)

Frankel was a handicapper’s wet dream. Sea The Stars was something of a nightmare. The result is Frankel is now rated a benchmark of equine excellence. And in figures terms, he is just that. But in hunch terms, if the pair were to have that metaphorical race in the sky over ten furlongs, I reckon Frankel would give STS a good lead – to the furlong pole. (more…)

Punters usually need little excuse to feel hard-done-by. Often they have reason. And sometimes they don’t. Champion jockey Davy Russell catches his fair share of punter flak and his odds-on defeat on Midnight Game in a three-horse race at Navan at the weekend generated more on the basis he was too quiet on the horse. Which just shows how appearances can be deceptive. (more…)

Banging on about the same thing when knowing it is futile in terms of change might be insanity but sometimes it remains necessary to simply keep shouting when racing can’t be bothered to wear even the flimsiest fig-leaf of concern for punters. (more…)