On Saturday next we are going to have what is usually one of the world’s top flat races on our doorstep at Leopardstown, a perfect opportunity for Irish racing to puff its chest out and invite the outside world for a peep at why we think the game is kinda cool. Instead of which the Champion Stakes appears to be being sold to Joe Public almost apologetically. (more…)

Those groans of relief from punters who backed Rip Van Winkle to win last week’s Juddmonte International must have been replaced by rather different groans when it was revealed the Breeders Cup Classic could be the colt’s end-of-season target. (more…)

It’s safe to presume that a hard-nosed business sense rather than any theoretical concern with sexual politics has informed the Curragh’s decision to offer free admission to the “ladyeez” on Moyglare Stud Stakes day but it will still be fascinating to see what impact the move has on the attendance. (more…)

We have been treated recently to some rather pious stuff about the punter being the most important person in racing. And there are places where punters are important: most everywhere around the world in fact. But here we have a specifically Irish problem involved in a very Irish solution. (more…)

A virtue of the Irish stewarding system compared to other jurisdictions is apparently the ability to apply common sense to incidents. But what happened at Galway last week made a mockery of such self-congratulation. So much so that it is now surely worth asking if the rules should be tightened up so that what passes for common sense in a steward’s room can be removed from the system. (more…)

A week may be a long time in politics but last week must have felt very long indeed at Turf Club headquarters where, as Larry Gogan might say, the hits just kept on coming. In fact racing politics as a whole can sometimes make the real thing look like a sensible, humdrum way to make a living. (more…)

Michael O’Leary’s outstanding success testifies to a clear-eyed realisation that the only thing that counts in business is the bottom line. However his investment in bloodstock he has described in the past as a “money pit” so it’s safe to say the Ryanair boss manages to park his financial instincts to the side when it comes to horses. And yet he appears to be surprisingly hard-headed when it comes to prizemoney and where it should go. (more…)

Great fillies like User Friendly and Ouija Board have won the Irish Oaks but the race also has on its roll-of-honour the easiest classic winner anyone has probably ever seen – and it’s not Sariska. (more…)

A weekend expedition to a Dublin betting shop indicated that when it comes to Irish racing the more things change, the more they can remain the same. It was like going back in time. As soon as the local stuff came on the screen, there was a groan, an actual groan, from the assortment of humanity scrambling to make a few quid. (more…)

The celebrated American war correspondent AJ Liebling once opined that people confuse what they read in newspapers with news. Since he also loved betting the ponies he would have relished Kilbeggan’s “extraordinary betting coup” on a number of levels. (more…)

With Workforce not appearing, the cliché about Hamlet without the Prince will probably get a few outings before Sunday’s Irish Derby is run. But there’s a danger that Ireland’s greatest classic drama might also end up seeming like Gertrude, Laertes and his wet chick sister are also absent. (more…)

Nostalgia may not be what it used to be but it is certainly big business, something that tracks pursuing the post-racing concert route might do well to remember when it comes to booking their acts. (more…)

The cliché about hanging together or else hanging separately remains hard to avoid when it comes to the ever-perplexing problem of why Irish racecourses find it so difficult to recognise the link between value for money and ever-declining attendance figures. (more…)

From not so long ago believing that nothing can win the greatest race in the world – such is the state of confusion surrounding Epsom 2010 – this corner has eventually found the likely winner based purely on the belief that no Derby winner can carry a crap name. (more…)

Since there are some techie wizards out there who reckon the internet could survive the impact of a nuclear war then it is surely not unreasonable to wonder if the vastness of the web will remain immune against attempts by our politicians to tame it for the purposes of collecting on-line betting tax. (more…)

The way Government hearts and minds have decided to follow Horse Racing Ireland’s policy on telephone and online betting tax suggests racing’s top brass must have quite a firm grasp of their balls too. (more…)

The always commercially conscious Coolmore team seemingly can’t help putting the boot into all those “modernists” who not so long ago were so determined to put the boot into the Epsom Derby. (more…)

Making excuses for racehorses is easy and, when it comes to the truly great ones of the species, usually unnecessary. (more…)

Racing is sporting Marmite – you either love it or you hate. There’s no in-between.

Sometimes you read a line that makes you groan out loud it’s so good and the Marmite comparison is just such a beast, especially since this week is when the Racing For Change experiment in Britain really takes off. (more…)

On the basis that there’s no one likely to get anything more wrong than an ‘ocker’ Australian, then who’s to say that the face of racing in regard to the whip won’t have changed utterly in the next five years. (more…)