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Mon 26th Nov 2018

Picking Up The Tab

News that the Minister for Finance Pascal Donohue will review his decision to increase the rate of betting tax from one per cent to two per cent looks a shrewd political two-step. It's no doubt a reaction to the political implications of 1,500 job losses in betting shops. But if the bookmaker lobby's argument, which includes taxing gross profits rather than turnover, is persuasive enough then it looks good for both betting shops and Horse Racing Ireland. Racing's ruling body doesn't care how the money is raised so long as it benefits. So there's a potential win-win all round.

9.15AM
Wed 21st Nov 2018

Colin Keane

It is nice to have a trip to Hong Kong to look forward to next month, after getting an invitation to participate in the Longines International Jockeys’ Championship at Happy Valley on December 5.

11.17PM
Mon 19th Nov 2018

Blackmore Continues To Be Season's Big Story

The National Hunt trainers championship doesn't appear like providing a winter long narrative this season. Willie Mullins looks to have got too big a jump on his rival Gordon Elliott for that. It's our good fortune then that Rachael Blackmore's pursuit of the jockey's title can provide an alternative winter hook. Not only is it keeping racing enthralled but it offers an opportunity for a truly landmark sporting story to unfold before us.

8.45AM
Thu 15th Nov 2018

Georgie Benson

It was great to see Apple’s Jade return to her best form when winning the Lismullen so well last Sunday. It was what we are used to seeing, her wanting her own way and taking control. She was really good, is definitely back to her old self and we were really happy with her.

9.08AM
Mon 12th Nov 2018

Getting The Start

The depth of racing talent this country produces can be gauged by the most successful Irish Group One jockey in the world right now being John Allen. Some of you might recall Allen as a former jump jockey who couldn't get arrested here. His career fortunes got so bad that seven years ago he moved to try his luck in Australia. On Saturday he beat the Irish Derby winner Latrobe in the $2 million Mackinnon Stakes at Flemington. The previous Saturday Allen landed the Victoria Derby. It's special stuff for a guy who looked to be on a one way ticket to obscurity back home.

8.42AM
Thu 8th Nov 2018

Aidan Howard

No-one was more surprised than I was when Frank Berry told me a couple of weeks before the Galway Festival that I would be holding onto Winter Escape.

9.40AM
Mon 5th Nov 2018

The Vision Thing

On the back of the Breeders Cup action in Kentucky, more proof the world has got smaller will be stamped all over tomorrow morning's Melbourne Cup. Ten of the runners in the race that famously stops a nation are trained in Ireland and Britain. There's a Japanese contender as well. Much of the home team are European imports. A race run at the other side of the world has become another international pit-stop live on telly. All of which still qualifies the big idea that originally opened it up in the first place to be the finest 'vision thing' world racing has ever seen.

9.02AM
Wed 31st Oct 2018

Donagh Meyler

I have been lucky enough to get the chance to ride regularly for Alan Fleming and Barry Connell in in recent months and it was great to ride a winner for them when Barwell won his maiden hurdle by 10 lengths at Wexford on Sunday.

12.45PM
Mon 29th Oct 2018

No Percentage In Nostalgia

Someone wise once described nostalgia as memory without the pain. Many within National Hunt racing's will probably hark back to the past during what's set to be another winter of success for some and discontent for others. It's jump racing's current contradiction that it has never been more successful yet more people feel more excluded from it than ever before. Nostalgia is deceptive comfort though. It presumes a halcyon time which in all likelihood never existed.

9.02AM
Thu 25th Oct 2018

Robert Power

Unfortunately I didn’t get to see much of New York City last weekend but I was the first to see the winning post in the American Grand National so that was enough!

8.17PM
Mon 22nd Oct 2018

Landlord & Tenant

If people do what they say they will do then racing at Down Royal can continue. The track's owner, Merrion Property Group, has stated racing is at the centre of their plans. Those still spooked can take reassurance from comments by local politicians of their opposition to any prospect of the 300 acre site being used for building. Nevertheless significant uncertainty remains which in turn must mean a bitter taste of 'if only' for a lot of passionate racing people in the North of Ireland.

9.14AM
Thu 18th Oct 2018

Andrew Slattery

This time of year is the changeover period for me in some ways — the end of the Flat season and the start of the school season!

9.15AM
Mon 15th Oct 2018

Taking Refuge In The Little Picture

We're all going to hell in a handcart, either because the planet's turning into a microwave, or a moron flimflam merchant in the White House, not to mention the benighted lunacy that is Brexit. It's a big picture to make racing's tiny self-absorbed bit seem especially trivial. None of which will stop those of us in thrall to the thoroughbred feeling the simple joy of pondering how Too Darn Hot might transform from exceptional two year old into the real classic deal next year.

8.54AM
Thu 11th Oct 2018

Tom Ryan

At a track like Naas that goes all year round with Flat and National Hunt racing we’ve no break really and we have the pedal to the metal most of the year.

10.13PM
Mon 8th Oct 2018

Old Habits Die Hard

Politics is about power but maintaining wriggle-room is vital in exercising it. No one becomes Minister for Finance by not being good at keeping their options open and Pascal Donohoe can clearly wriggle it more than a little bit. So it will be fascinating to see what he does in Tuesday's budget in relation to Irish racing's annual plea for an increase in betting tax which always gets represented as some sort of self-financing silver bullet for the industry.

8.48AM
Thu 4th Oct 2018

Killian Leonard

I think it is fair to say that things couldn’t be going much better at the moment.

2.55PM
Mon 1st Oct 2018

Closed On Sunday

Sunday is the day most people are free to indulge in leisure time. It has also become the day Irish racing uses to stage many of its shop-window fixtures. The theory is that Sunday is when most people can go watch racing. Of course practise can differ from theory and there has been very little quibbling about cutting back the number of Sunday fixtures in 2019. It's a move that sends out a notable signal about racing's view of itself as a spectator sport.

8.56AM
Wed 26th Sep 2018

Padraig Roche

Thankfully things have got off to a nice start since I began training and if the horses aren’t winning they’ve been running well and you can’t ask for more than that.

9.22PM
Mon 24th Sep 2018

No Pain No Gain

Announcing the disqualification of five 'winners' for positive drug tests hardly made for good 'PR' last week. They were the latest in a series of uncomfortable headlines about a spike in positive drug tests during 2018. That makes for embarrassment. However Irish racing needs to ensure short-term discomfort doesn't interfere with long-term plans for getting its anti-doping house in order. Embarrassment goes away. It's a symptom. Fretting about symptoms and not causes is a cop-out.

9.16AM
Wed 19th Sep 2018

Seb Vance

There are few more lively topics in Irish racing right now than racing’s TV rights in Ireland.

9.16AM
Mon 17th Sep 2018

That Friday Feeling

Some of you come here for bile and begrudgery so straight off the bat let's simply say all that 'Irish Champions Weekend' action was brilliant. A superb Champions Stakes finish between Roaring Lion and Saxon Warrior was elite racing at its most exciting. Alpha Centauri's defeat and subsequent retirement reflected the emotional sweep of this game. There were a range of winners to make any monopolies accusation seem redundant. Even the weather played ball. This was racing at its best.

8.57AM
Thu 13th Sep 2018

Wayne Middleton

My role within racing is the strength and conditioning coach for trainee jockeys in RACE and also for professional jockeys through Horse Racing Ireland.

10.48AM
Mon 10th Sep 2018

Sending Up A Desperate Flare

Corporate jargon has it that standing still is really going backwards. That is literally bullshit. However there is a figurative context about the importance of maintaining forward momentum in any enterprise. This will be the fifth year of 'Irish Champions Weekend.' It's tough to argue Irish flat racing's showcase event is going backwards. But if its momentum isn't in reverse it still looks to have stalled.

9.04AM
Thu 6th Sep 2018

Ronan Whelan

My aim at the start of every season is to try and better my tally from last year and try to up the quality of horse I am riding and thankfully I’ve had a nice total of winners so far and got a few Group winner as well.

9.22PM
Mon 3rd Sep 2018

Michael D's Sure Thing

The race is on towards next month's Presidential election and Michael D Higgins is a heavy odds-on favourite to win a second term in the Aras. He has been widely praised for his first term in the largely ceremonial and constitutional role. However from a purely parochial point of view it's unsettling that a rare venture into policy territory occurred during the summer when the President declared his distaste for gambling and gambling advertising in particular.

8.46AM
Wed 29th Aug 2018

Shane Foley

I’m just back from Japan where I rode in the All Star Jockeys Challenge and finished fifth and it was a great experience.

2.30PM
Mon 27th Aug 2018

Bye Bye 'Ballydoyle Bug'

The 'Ballydoyle Bug' is receding into the distance if the weekend action is any guide. Half a dozen winners at the Curragh - including a Futurity clean-sweep - indicate an operation approaching full throttle again. Aidan O'Brien has described the illness that swept through Ballydoyle as the worst he's experienced there. But perhaps the greatest perspective came from his rival Ger Lyons when he said \"I'd love my horses to be as sick as Aidan's!\"

9.12AM
Tue 21st Aug 2018

Robbie Colgan

I’ve been working for Sheila Lavery for a few years now and she has been on to me for a while to go on a diet and this year I just said I’d give it a go and it has taken off from there really.

7.59PM
Mon 20th Aug 2018

Keep Cool & Carry On

Once a group of jockeys decided the track at Ballinrobe last Monday was unsafe, and no remedial measures would work, then the meeting was always going to be cancelled. That's as it should be. It's easy to be brave on the sidelines. No one can insist on jockeys riding in such circumstances. But they were circumstances that meant questions about the future of flat racing at the Co. Mayo track were only logical. The result is a summit of interested parties today where the most likely outcome will be to keep cool and carry on as before.

9.06AM
Thu 16th Aug 2018

Billy Lee

Over the last number of years I have built up a good association with Willie McCreery and it was nice to get another winner chalked up for him at Gowran Park last night.

9.40AM
Mon 13th Aug 2018

Owners Versus Punters

Racecourses have made great strides in recent times to improve the race day experience for owners — increasing the number of free entry tickets available, priority parking, exclusive owners’ lounges, free food and in some cases free drinks. All admirable as owners are seen as the life-blood of the industry.

9.14AM
Wed 8th Aug 2018

Mark Enright

I had no expectations going to Galway. I had no ride in the Galway Hurdle or the Galway Plate but I knew I’d have a few rides here and there but nothing really to be getting carried away with.

1.37PM
Mon 6th Aug 2018

Reserve system not fit for purpose

There was nothing tragic about Carlingford Lough's 2013 Galway Plate success. But that history repeated itself with the reserve system before last week's Plate is farcical. Patricks Park's failure to overhaul Clarcam meant it wasn't a near-exact replication of five years ago. However it was close enough to highlight once more how the reserve system isn't fit for purpose when it comes to high-profile races. And that there's been no move to change it in half a decade is yet another signal to the betting public of how far down Irish racing's priority list it is.

9.48AM
Mon 30th Jul 2018

Michael Moloney

This is a very exciting week for us all at Galway Races and these are the seven days that the entire year revolves around but we are very lucky that this event is building on the success year in, year out and an awful lot of stuff is the same.

11.07AM
Galway Races

Galway Sentiment Results

9.18AM

Thu 26th Jul 2018

Darragh O'Keeffe

I was absolutely delighted to get the opportunity to ride my first winner for Enda Bolger on William Du Berlais at Killarney last week and then to follow it up again on him at Tipperary was brilliant.

10.20AM
Mon 23rd Jul 2018

Swings & Roundabouts

The Maginot Line was France's grand plan to keep the Germans out. It was a logistical feat, running throughout the French-German border. It looked impregnable. It looked superb. The only problem was the line ended at Belgium. In 1940 the Germans simply swung around it and exploited the single albeit crucial chink in an otherwise impressive facade. The fear is that 'prior day notice' ultimately proves a vital chink in racing's proposed new defence plan against doping.

9.11AM
Thu 19th Jul 2018

Tom Madden

We are halfway through the season now and I am on course for a season's best total of winners so I’m delighted with the ways things are going at the moment.

10.11AM
Mon 16th Jul 2018

Avoiding A Self-Inflicted Wound

There's a sad synchronicity to how Philip Fenton will probably saddle a runner before there's agreement on a new Anti-Doping policy for Irish racing. It was January 2012 when Department of Agriculture officials found anabolic steroids at Fenton's yard. Since then the industry's reputation has been damaged, Fenton has served his three year disqualification, and there still isn't a reformed drugs system in place. Such a glacial pace reflects well on nobody. It's in that context that failure to sign off on the long-awaited proposed new policy will be scandalous.

9.18AM
Wed 11th Jul 2018

Oisin Murphy

Winning the Coral Eclipse on Roaring Lion last Saturday was a fantastic day and one I am very grateful for. I’ve always had full faith in the horse and I was just delighted to finally get a first Group 1 winner for Sheikh Fahad, so it was great.

1.06PM
Mon 9th Jul 2018

Jockeys Should Be Seen And Not Heard

The quality of English teaching in Munster is clearly good. So much is obvious from how articulate both Oisin Murphy and Donnacha O'Brien were at the stewards enquiry after Saturday's Eclipse. So take a bow Colaiste Mhuire and Rockwell: such fluency from your past pupils was impressive. But we shouldn't have had to hear it. It was entirely predictable what both would say. All it really showed once again is how jockeys should be seen and not heard at interference enquiries.

8.54AM
Wed 4th Jul 2018

Jerry Hannon

This years Galway Festival will be something of a dream come true for me as I take over as racecourse commentator from my inspiration, Dessie Scahill.

4.10PM
Mon 2nd Jul 2018

The End Of A Beginning

It's the scale of Latrobe's Irish Derby victory that's hard to process. There's the first time siblings have won Ireland's premier classic as trainer and jockey. Then there's Joseph adding to two wins as jockey with a first classic as a trainer. Not to mention Donnacha continuing to emulate his big brother's achievements in the saddle. There's even Latrobe leading home four horses trained by their father. Overall it was unique familial dominance of a major classic. Amidst all the Derby angles however maybe the most relevant is that Joseph O'Brien is 25 and his father still only 48.

9.05AM
Thu 28th Jun 2018

Michael Halford

There’s great excitement around our yard this week, the Irish Derby is such a huge race and we are really looking forward to having a runner in it.

9.55AM
Mon 25th Jun 2018

What's Another Year

It seems the Irish Derby's fate is to be slammed for being either uncompetitive or lacking star quality. As a species we're apparently genetically programmed to better recall the negative rather than the positive. But racing fans seems to contradict that. Most years the Irish Derby gets bemoaned in comparison to glories of the past. That's unfair. It's also important to keep in mind there's nothing wrong with the race. It's just events, dear boy, events.

9.09AM
Mon 18th Jun 2018

Johnny Murtagh

Things are going very well at the minute with seven winners already this month but that is what you want in this game. The really pleasing thing is that all the horses are running well and even those that are not winning are still running well so we are delighted.

9.20PM
Royal Ascot starts tomorrow

Factor For Morons

9.10AM

Wed 13th Jun 2018

Damian English

It’s been a great start to the year with six winners on the board from just 12 horses riding out so we can’t complain at all at the minute.

7.00PM
Mon 11th Jun 2018

England's Misfortune Is Ireland's Opportunity

The jargon industry thrives on turning the language of disaster into phrases such as 'challenge' and 'opportunity.' But contrary to most other sectors, and without wishing to accentuate the positive too much, there is a chance Britain's disastrous 'Brexit' policy could turn out to be a good thing for Irish racing. In fact without totally eliminating the negative, and depending on the bounce of the political ball, this 'Brexit' challenge really could be an opportunity for the sport and industry to improve.

9.01AM
Wed 6th Jun 2018

John McConnell

I will always remember one very good trainer saying “I’m an overnight success after 25 years” so things don’t happen overnight for most trainers so like everyone I’m striving to get to the next level.

9.16AM
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