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Those groans of relief from punters who backed Rip Van Winkle to win last week’s Juddmonte International must have been replaced by rather different groans when it was revealed the Breeders Cup Classic could be the colt’s end-of-season target.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