Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

Joe Foley

I am very excited to be co-sponsoring the €200,000 Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes, a six-furlong race for two-year-olds by an EBF-registered sire whose median price is no more than €75,000. It will be run at Naas on Monday, August 3rd, which is a bank holiday and is the Racecourse of the Year’s richest race.

12.19PM

The Need For Seed

Lots of pearl-clutching is going on in racing at any prospect of a future Sinn Fein led government. This seems primarily due to a statement issued in 2017 where the party called for an end to state support of the Horse & Greyhound Fund until reform of governance and regulation was implemented within the two sectors. Perhaps inevitably over the last week that's been racing's specific focus rather more than broader questions as to how a quarter of voters in this state voted to put apologists for killers into power.

8.53AM

Johnny Barry

It was almost as if the stars aligned that I would ride my 150th point-to-point winner on Arctic Skipper at the Tallow Point-To-Point, which is run on Jimmy Mangan’s land next door to my home place.

12.33PM

'What If'

Here's a hypothetical scenario: forty minutes after the most underwhelming Champion Hurdle of modern times, Honeysuckle wins the Mares Hurdle in a canter. It's hardly an outrageous hypothesis, especially if Benie Des Dieux runs in the Stayers. No doubt the Honeysuckle camp will argue a win's a win. But even they might privately admit the consequence would be a sense of 'What If.'

8.41AM

Barry Browne

I didn’t ride a winner at Leopardstown over the Dublin Racing Festival but I got two great spins, finishing third in the Grade 1 ERSG Arkle Novice Chase on Gallant John Joe and second in the €100,000 William Fry Handicap Hurdle on The Jam Man.

8.10PM

Endgame

David Dunne could be the answer to a potential future quiz question about which trainer saddled a 100-1 winner two days before having his licence suspended. Dunne starts a four month suspension in March on the back an Appeals body decision last week. It appears to be the end of the saga of how his charge, Druim Samhraidh, tested positive for an anabolic steroid after winning at Ballinrobe in August. But questions surely remain around how this endgame was reached.

8.37AM

Jack Cantillon

Syndicates Racing is a new venture but we have already experienced a wide gamut of emotions in a short space of time, the build-up to the weekend’s Dublin Racing Festival being a case in point.

1.14PM

Overloaded

Offering too much at one time can backfire. Just ask the Labour party after last month's UK election where a manifesto containing superabundant promises simply overloaded voters. It's a stretch from that to the Dublin Racing Festival. But not so much that fears about Irish jump racing's shop-window event offering too much of a good thing at one time aren't plausible.

9.17AM

Tommy Brett

It was a great relief to return to the winner’s enclosure last week after a long absence, thanks to Grey Habit for Paddy Meany in the Your Clubs Fundraise @ fairyhouse.ie Enquire Today Handicap Hurdle.

2.46PM

Saudi Cup 'Sportswashing'

'Sportswashing' is an evocative term. Technically it is hosting a sporting event in order for a county to improve its reputation, particularly if it has a poor human rights record. Saudi Arabia has been exercising such soft power with a vengeance in recent years. Next month's Saudi Cup is part of this strategy. So it represents something of a sporting dilemma.

8.40AM

Philip Enright

Hitting the 30-winner mark on Sean Says for Rodger Sweeney at Punchestown on Wednesday was very pleasing, as it matched my previous best ever total. To do that with so much of the campaign left was great and hopefully I can build on that further by the end of the season at Punchestown.

9.29AM

Doesn't Do Exactly What It Says On The Tin

There's often a gap between what racing says on the tin and what actually happens. For instance, officially, every horse must be ridden to achieve its best position. It's a nice theory. Another instance is how the preservation of public confidence in the sport as a betting medium is vital. Yet trainers and jockeys climbing into commercial bed with bookmakers has consistently been whitewashed as a harmless earner. It shows how this is no straightforward tin.

10.40PM

Conor Brassil

It is very testing for a jockey when you have gone a long time without a winner and you have to be strong mentally to deal with it.

9.36AM

A Forlorn Exercise

Racing's enduring efforts to persuade the public at large that they should be fascinated with the game is a recurring storyline. The broad thrust is usually that those either ignorant of, or impervious to, the sport's charms only need an 'Every Racing Moment' to become converts. But it's a tough pitch when even someone like Michael O'Leary admits a day at the races can be just plain boring.

8.23AM

Mouse Morris

I have never had a big operation at Everardsgrange, we don’t have the space to do it, so we haven’t done too badly over the years, winning the Gold Cup, Champion Chase and Stayers’ Hurdle at Cheltenham, the Aintree and Irish Grand Nationals and plenty of other top races.

2.56PM

Ten Predictions For Decade Ahead

It's the season for predictions, not only 2020 but for the decade ahead. This is shaky ground. Even the truest Cassandra would have been stretched to come up with some of the outcomes from the last ten years. Hands up who in 2010 forecast Padraig Beggy becoming a Derby winning jockey? So here, complete with health warnings - and presuming Trump hasn't fried us all - are a few tentative racing prophecies for the coming decade with no responsibility whatsoever taken for the outcome.

10.30PM

Kevin Brouder

It is unusual for three brothers with no background in racing or horses to end up being jockeys but that is how it is with Gearoid, Gavin and myself.

2.07PM

Rock & A Hard Place

Riddle me this: if you can't afford to build something but someone offers to spend almost ten times more to build the thing bigger and better with no strings attached you'd count your lucky stars, right? Horse Racing Ireland's plans for second all-weather circuit appear to be different. They've picked their own track at Tipperary but can't pay for it yet. So everything's on hold including, it seems, Luke Comer's offer to build a brand new facility at his Palmerstown Estate near Naas.

9.23AM

Philip Rothwell

We have been on a nice little run in recent weeks, through the end of November and the start of December, and it is very welcome indeed to be on seven winners already for the season, having only managed two last term. It is six years since we recorded more than that, registering 17 in 2013-2014, so it is great.

10.45AM

Putting The Cart Before The Horse

Later today the Horse Racing Ireland board meets to sign off on their 2020 budget. Industry stakeholders are awaiting details with some trepidation. Cuts seem to be inevitable given that state funding is unchanged at €67.2 million from last year. Where they occur may reveal more about Irish racing's actual priorities than any amount of official statements.

9.11AM

Trevor Ryan

It was great to record a double at Tramore on Tuesday, just three weeks after getting my first. That brings me to eight winners for the season, which is my best tally to date and it's great to be getting some return after slaving away for very little for a long time.

2.39PM

Having Your Cake & Eating It

There seem to be a lot of racing fans who aren't any kind of Christmas Grinch and yet are already dreading their St Stephens Day telly viewing. It says a lot about the ire that Racing TV's coverage of Punchestown in particular on Sunday has provoked with predictions of chaos when it comes to the prospect of the busiest day of the year later this month.

8.52AM

Colm O'Connell

Un De Sceaux is so accustomed to his trips to Sandown, Ascot, Cheltenham and Auteuil that he could make the journey on his own at this stage. Of his 23 wins, 10 have been Grade 1s and he has won those Grade 1s at five different tracks.

1.08PM

A Little Fizzy

The connections of Honeysuckle and Envoi Allen can bask in the Grade One glory achieved at Fairyhouse for a little while longer before looking forward to a winter of incessant speculation about the Champion Hurdle. Both the unbeaten mare and the unbeaten novice are as low as 8-1 for hurdling's championship at Cheltenham in March. That's despite it being far from the first-choice festival option for either. Plenty are already arguing it should be.

8.23AM

Matthew Smith

We have had some good fun this year already with One Cool Poet but it is very exciting now to have Ronald Pump competing in the Grade 1 Bar One Racing Drinmore Chase at Fairyhouse on Sunday. He’s ready to roll and in good form.

2.16PM

Twisting By The Pool

The threat by on-course bookmakers to withdraw their services from tomorrow is a sure-fire attention grabber. It is a desperate attempt by the layers to concentrate official minds on the practical difficulties of a declining industry and maybe even try to help out a little bit. Much more significant in the long-term though is Horse Racing Ireland's confirmation that potentially selling all or part of Tote Ireland to private interests is among options being examined for the organisation.

8.51AM

Danny Mullins

I gave Saldier a good chance going into the race last weekend, but in a race of that level, you’d be foolish to be overconfident. You have to believe in yourself and the horse but it was a very good race. Going forward, it’s a nice feather in his cap but he’ll need to improve again.

4.51PM

A Third Way

Here's an early New Year's Resolution that racing around the world might consider for 2020 when it comes to interference rules. Most major jurisdictions currently operate what are termed Category One rules. The exception is North America which uses Category Two regulations. Both sets are flawed. One produces an unfair result like this year's Kentucky Derby. The other leads to the absurd Prix Du Moulin outcome. It's time for a Third Way.

9.17AM

Paul Hennessy

It is a pity that they have had so much rain in Cheltenham that they had to call off today’s racing but I have to say, I am not complaining about how soft the ground is getting generally because Heaven Help Us loves that.

12.13PM

Foot-Dragging

In January 2012 Department of Agriculture inspectors raided Philip Fenton's stables and cured Irish racing of its drug-free delusions by finding banned animal medicines including anabolic steroids. Ensuring industry credibility by provision of a new anti-doping regime has supposedly been a priority almost ever since. That's almost eight years now. Still nothing is in place on the ground. It begs the question as to how much of a priority the fight against drugs actually is.

8.49AM

Robbie Gallagher

It was a shock but a very pleasant one when my name was read out as winner of the Dedication to Racing & Breeding category at the Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards last week. I was over the moon.

9.49PM

Cosmopolitan

The Melbourne Cup has always been regarded as a sporting reflection of Australia and is likely to be so again in the early hours of tomorrow morning. It's famously the 'race that stops a nation.' But reports down under suggest national disquiet over racing in general is expanding to an extent that warns everywhere else of the dangers of failing to look in the mirror and examining its public reflection.

9.17AM

Oisín Orr

The race to be champion apprentice is going down to the wire but I can assure you I’m not getting stressed about it at all. There’s no point. It won’t get you anywhere.

2.19PM

Attention Seeking

Attention is great when it's positive, not so much when it's negative. For instance the Coolmore Stud partnership is supposedly wary of publicity. That's not true. It's just bad publicity they don't like. Events, dear boy, do, however, have a habit of dictating what kind you get. The Breeders Cup is designed to attract attention to the sport in the US. But the 36th renewal this week will be the most fraught ever because such notice could turn out to be good or very bad indeed.

8.57AM

Andrew Slattery

It is hard to believe that we are almost at the end of the flat season, with just a handful of fixtures left.

9.14AM

Back To The Future

Time was when this part of the world smugly dismissed day to day racing in the US, France and elsewhere as soulless betting fodder, characterising it as an unseemly rush to the bottom with programmes full of bad horses run in front of paltry crowds that might as well be playing the slots. Such complacency already looks misplaced. Times to come could see it seem even more so.

9.38AM

Denis Hogan

It is all systems go for Make A Challenge to have a go at Group 1 honours in the Qipco British Champion Sprint at Ascot tomorrow. The 40 grand supplementary fee has been paid up so we kind of have to go now!

1.13PM

Smorgasbord

There appears to be disgruntlement within racing at how the industry's state allocation remains unchanged at €67.2 million after last week's 2020 budget. Given the fraught political context of Brexit it might be argued that no change was a good outcome but one thing Irish racing is rarely short of is entitlement. There's even a suggestion the government might have dropped the ball on not giving one of those five year strategic fund guarantees of old rather than maintaining an annual review. To which one can only say there's no harm in asking: all they can say is no.

9.25AM