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Cheltenham Festival 2026

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Cheltenham Festival 2026

Days

Hrs

Min

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Vincent Finegan

Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

Tue 24th Dec 2019

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

Mon 23rd Dec 2019

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

Thu 19th Dec 2019

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

Mon 16th Dec 2019

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

Fri 13th Dec 2019

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

Mon 9th Dec 2019

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

Fri 6th Dec 2019

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

Mon 2nd Dec 2019

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

Fri 29th Nov 2019

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

Mon 25th Nov 2019

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

Fri 22nd Nov 2019

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

Mon 18th Nov 2019

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

Fri 15th Nov 2019

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

Mon 11th Nov 2019

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

Thu 7th Nov 2019

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

Mon 4th Nov 2019

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

Fri 1st Nov 2019

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

Mon 28th Oct 2019

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

Fri 25th Oct 2019

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

Mon 21st Oct 2019

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

Fri 18th Oct 2019

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

Mon 14th Oct 2019

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

Wed 9th Oct 2019

Shane Foley

It would have been hard to call the season disappointing after the amount of winners we had but there definitely would have been a tinge of disappointment had the boss, Jessie Harrington, and I not managed to round off all those two-year-old fillies’ winners especially with a Group 1.

1.09PM

Mon 7th Oct 2019

'Allez France'

If nothing else comes out of yesterday's Arc can it be the putting out to grass of that phrase about a good horse going on any ground. Any horse can go on any ground. It's the velocity at which they go that counts. Enable came up short in her hat-trick attempt simply because of the extreme conditions. They used to be common for the Arc and the odds were they were due. The odds also were that even a supremely versatile talent like Enable would struggle to properly go on them.

9.11AM

Fri 4th Oct 2019

Shane Crosse

To ride two group winners last weekend was deadly. Unreal. You can’t dwell on it too much as you have to kick on again for the next day but to get those opportunities and experience that as an 18-year-old apprentice is almost unbelievable.

10.40AM

Mon 30th Sep 2019

Potential Paris Party Pooper

If the idea of Enable pulling off an unprecedented Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe hat-trick can't float your boat then the good ship Romance is scuttled on a very dry beach. Sunday's race at Longchamp promises history. The best horse in the world is odds on to once again win Europe's greatest race. It's perfectly set up for a superb seasonal crescendo. Which is usually when things start to leak.

8.40AM

Fri 27th Sep 2019

Andy Slattery

It has been another good year for us in terms of winners and prizemoney, and to have my son Andrew and nephew Ben Coen thriving as jockeys has been a big part of that.

12.28PM

Mon 23rd Sep 2019

Emperor's New Clothes

Mark Johnston recently made a point that's crucial to the issue of how relevant prizemoney actually is to owners. He said that given a choice of getting two grand for winning a race, or four grand for finishing second, most any owner will opt for the win. It's an Emperor's new clothes observation that's impossible to argue with.

8.48AM

Fri 20th Sep 2019

Matthew Smith

It is a slow, long haul but this season has been our most successful to date, the string is the biggest we have had and we have had more winners than ever before. Once you’re moving in an upward direction you can’t complain, even if you’d love it to happen more quickly maybe.

1.53PM

Mon 16th Sep 2019

Class Wins Out

Racing showed its best side to the world at the Curragh on Sunday and it had nothing to do with the 'Irish Champions Weekend' action. The money-raising effort around Pat Smullen's Champions For Cancer Trials event was carried out with a style synonymous with the man at the centre of it. The only bum note was AP McCoy's after his ill-advised attempt at a flying dismount! Nevertheless, on a notable championship occasion it was this singular event that exuded class.

8.55AM

Fri 13th Sep 2019

Chris Hayes

It has been a good week for me at the Harvest Festival in Listowel and it could get even better if Madhmoon can win the Qipco Irish Champion Stakes tomorrow. And sure you’re always greedy in this game and I will be trying hard to add to my classic CV, and win a second Irish St Leger with Search For a Song on Sunday

1.30PM

Mon 9th Sep 2019

The Big Sell

Japan's absence from the Irish Champion Stakes robs the 'Irish Champions Weekend' feature of some star power. Europe's top star Enable was never going to Leopardstown. Now her greatest three year old rival doesn't look like doing so either. The French Derby hero Sottsass isn't coming, nor it appears are any of Timeform's top ten rated older European horses. It leaves Magical as favourite. Admirable as she is her main claim to fame has been as Enable's punch-bag. So a race that has to be judged by the highest standards has a second-division feel this time.

8.50AM

Fri 6th Sep 2019

Eric McNamara

The Guinness Kerry National has been a very good race for us and we will be returning to Listowel hoping to add to our previous three triumphs in it.

4.12PM

Mon 2nd Sep 2019

Whip Crack Away

Turbine's unfortunate claim to fame is likely to be as the first horse to test positive for an anabolic steroid in Ireland. But seven years after steroids were found at the yard of Philip Fenton, and five years after the former Department of Agriculture veterinary inspector John Hughes was found to have possessed a commercial quantity of an anabolic steroid, the Turbine case also suggests a sport at long last starting to catch up with anti-doping reality.

9.12AM

Fri 30th Aug 2019

Lewis King

There was no connection with horses from family or friends in my life but I can pinpoint exactly when I became in thrall to racing.

10.34AM

Mon 26th Aug 2019

There's Great And There's Great

Dermot Weld has a tiny verbal tic that leads him to sometimes ending sentences with 'if you know what I mean.' Considering the rest of us are mostly playing catch up with the great man it's hardly unreasonable. None of which has anything to do with Enable who is a great champion without being a great great champion - if you know what I mean.

8.53AM

Sun 25th Aug 2019

Sunday's Daily Pointers

After a busy and successful week at York jockey Ryan Moore turns his attention to Yarmouth today, taking rides in six of the seven races on the card. One of those is Mark Johnston’s Fred in the six furlong nursery at 4.00, a horse who came unstuck in a deeper race than this at Glorious Goodwood, but had previously won novice events at both Leicester and Haydock.

10.47AM

Sat 24th Aug 2019

Rab Havlin - York Ebor blog

FansBet’s man in the saddle, Rab Havlin, reflects on a nigh-on perfect week for the John Gosden team at York, unveils his fourth and final Racing Welfare Ebor Festival charity selection, plus reveals how he sees the feature Ebor Handicap being played out.

10.14AM

Fri 23rd Aug 2019

Daily Pointers - York Saturday

Run over a mile and a furlong at 1.55, the Group 3 Strensall Stakes is a good introduction to Ebor day at York, the fourth and final day of a festival which has given us memorable displays from the likes of Logician, Japan, Mums Tipple and Enable. Sir Michael Stoute found himself denied in a photo finish when Crystal Ocean was edged out by the narrowest of margins in Wednesday’s Juddmonte International, but he could be set for a winning start here with his Zaaki the mount of Ryan Moore.

4.50PM

Darragh O'Keeffe after riding a double at Clonmel last year

Darragh O'Keeffe

12.36PM

Ten Sovereigns is Rab's charity bet

Rab Havlin Blog - York Day Three

9.34AM

Thu 22nd Aug 2019

Daily Pointers for York Friday

After a superb couple of opening cards we’re at the half way mark of the Ebor Festival, where York’s 20-runner 1.55 race gets us up and running on Nunthorpe day, a mile and a half handicap worth in excess of £43,000 to the winner and attracting plenty of quality. Jockey Oisin Murphy could barely be in better form of late, regularly attracting the attention of the FansBet Daily Racing Report when partnering winners on 13 consecutive riding days.

4.20PM

Enable is the star attraction on day two at York

The Rab Havlin Blog - York Day Two

9.34AM

Wed 21st Aug 2019

Thursday's York horses to watch and Daily Pointers

A really classy renewal of the Group 2 Lowther Stakes eases us in to day two at York’s Ebor Festival. Run at 1.55, this 10-runner fillies’ event features some seriously promising talent, not least in-form James Tate’s Under The Stars. Unbeaten in two starts including a 25/1 Group 3 stunner at Ascot last time out, she holds two future Group 1 entries and is one of a number of these for whom the sky could be the limit.

5.17PM

Action from York

Rab Havlin's York Day 1 Blog

8.20AM

Tue 20th Aug 2019

The FansBet guide to the York Ebor Meeting

In a nutshell, York’s prestigious and keenly awaited Ebor Meeting is four days of the best Flat racing you’ll come across pretty much anywhere on the planet, the high summer watermark, a bastion of equine talent, human brilliance in the saddle, prize money, sunshine, famously affordable champagne, great betting opportunities, style, glamour and excitement, all wrapped up into a four-day blitz on the beautiful Knavesmire.

11.14AM

Mon 19th Aug 2019

Sunday Blank

The question of whether or not blank Sundays are an industry indulgence or an acknowledgement of declining spectator appeal could arise again when the 2020 fixture list is announced next month. Informed sources suggest consideration is being given to reducing the number of blank Sundays to perhaps just a couple. Inevitably such a prospect is either good or bad depending on your opinion.

8.38AM

Wed 14th Aug 2019

Robbie Dolan

It was nice to get home for two weeks after such a successful season in Australia where I won the two New South Wales apprentice titles— the one for the provincial tracks but most importantly, the Metropolitan championship in Sydney, where all the top racing is. The likes of Hugh Bowman and Tommy Berry have won that and jockeys generally go on to have a good career afterwards.

11.10AM

Mon 12th Aug 2019

A Day At The Races

I brought two friends racing on the Wednesday of Galway. Neither had an interest in racing and only one had been to a race meeting before.

9.05AM

Thu 8th Aug 2019

Donie McInerney

It was great to ride out my claim on Nibblers Charm for Ray Hackett at Cork on Monday. I went there thinking Fred The Foot was my best chance but he was a non-runner so I didn’t think anything more about the rest after that. But Ray said Nibblers Charm wouldn’t be far away and fair play to him, he was dead right. So it was great to do it.

10.15AM

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