“Champions Day” might be the great white hope of British racing but it remains very much the case that Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe day is the most prestigious single card run in Europe and don’t expect anything to change about that anytime soon. (more…)

A few weeks ago I tried to be a little constructive and proposed a massive showpiece card for Leopardstown’s Champion Stakes fixture, moving both the National Stakes and the Moyglare Stakes to make a bulked up prestige Group 1 card. Well, forget it. It might still be an industry showpiece. But you could stick Ireland’s entire dozen Group 1 races on to one card and it wouldn’t make any real difference to getting people through the gates. (more…)

The Turf Club and the Seanad have quite a lot in common. Both are perceived by many to be as elitist as they are inept and both appear to be sliding inexorably towards irrelevance. There are plenty who would delight in the disappearance of both, and that would be a pity. (more…)

Denis Brosnan’s reputation as Irish racing’s ultra-shrewd political ace-in-the-hole took a knock over the Brian Kavanagh bonus fiasco and HRI’s outgoing chairman now appears to believe he will be handing over a rosy economic opportunity to whoever his successor will be. (more…)