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…)

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…)

Here’s a question: in other racing jurisdictions around the world, what would the penalties be for the trainer of a horse that is a blatant no-try and then fails a dope test into the bargain? (more…)