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…)

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…)

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…)

An acquaintance who gets into a sweat about ratings and the pattern and such like opined at the weekend that calling the Hatton’s Grace Hurdle a top class race because it is “Grade 1” is like calling Sligo Rovers top class because the word “Premier” is in the League of Ireland title. Which is very unfair – on the Hatton’s Grace. (more…)

Just as a Guineas winner is often dismissed as having too much speed to last the Derby, there is a school of belief that Flemenstar’s spectacular return to action over two miles at Navan indicates he can’t possibly possess the stamina required to win a Cheltenham Gold Cup: to which one can only reply that if his stamina was already proven, he’d be too slow for steeplechasing’s blue-riband! (more…)

The more you examine Camelot’s reputation, the easier it is to argue he is the best of a particularly bad lot of three year olds, and that, rather like a carefully cultivated boxer, his success is a tribute to some extremely good management. (more…)

Wednesday’s Juddmonte International at York is not run over a mile and a quarter but a mile and a quarter and eighty eight yards. It sounds a finicky distinction but with Frankel tackling a distance over a mile for the first time it might yet become very relevant indeed. (more…)

You don’t have to buy into a grand Orwellian conspiracy theory to recognise the truth in old Eric’s line about some being more equal than others. Sometimes it can happen in a little corner of anywhere, say Roscommon on a mundane Tuesday evening. (more…)

Overwhelming dominance in any area of competition can get tiresome, especially for those dominated, but those predicting the continual decline in reputation of the Irish Derby due to Coolmore’s hegemony are ignoring some salient realities. (more…)

Well, how was it for you? Did the long build-up work? Was it anticipatory, a long, lingering foreplay of suspense building up to the shuddering Derby climax? Or did it just go on too long and you lost interest? Either way, it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong. Everyone’s different. And there’s always next time. (more…)

To paraphrase Alex Ferguson: Royal Ascot – Bloody Hell! Eight Irish trained winners rather put the five at Cheltenham in the shade and they were spread around a bit too; no Ballydoyle beano this time. But even though there has been a “Wow” factor about Frankel ever since that Queen Anne win, all we can do is see that “Wow” and raise you a “Zowie!” (more…)

Praise and criticism tends to go in waves. In the immediate aftermath of Camelot’s Derby success, he was hailed a true champion. Then came a reaction, suggesting he’s the best of a mediocre classic crop. That could yet prove valid, but never forget first impressions can deceive. (more…)

A lot of money is spent on ‘morkoting’ racing, and publicity campaigns, and promotions, and special offers. But ask any racecourse manager and they’ll tell you the one thing that really helps get people through the turnstiles in Ireland is the one thing you can’t buy – good weather. (more…)

Sometimes it’s good to look around and recognise that while things can appear bad here, far-away fields aren’t always greener, especially when it comes to the drug issue. American racing for instance is on the verge of a long-awaited Triple Crown winner in I’ll Have Another and to European eyes at least, the story will be as much about the trainer, Doug O’Neill, as it is about his horse. (more…)

If you’re going to be a hostage to fortune then it’s best to get the manacles on good and tight so here goes – is Frankel the most overrated horse in ages? And will wiping the floor with Excelebration again in this weekend’s Lockinge prove anything different? (more…)

Irish racing’s international image got another high-profile boost at Newmarket, something the industry’s administrators will no doubt use as another example to government of how its financial assistance pays off in headline-making success stories. But not everyone makes headlines, and not everyone it seems is sharing in the glory. (more…)

Look up a definition of Camelot in its Arthurian guise and at some stage the word idealised will appear. The equine Camelot may be a red-hot favourite for this Saturday’s 2,000 Guineas but it’s hard not to suspect the same word could be employed for his Guineas claims too. (more…)

Yes, it’s about the Turf Club – again. But don’t worry. It’s for the last time – probably. After all, the Turf Club isn’t going to be around for much longer – probably. That’s 212 years disappearing over the horizon, baby. And it seems no one is going to particularly miss it either. Which is a pity. (more…)