Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

J J Slevin

Winning the Irish Grand National probably hasn’t really sunk in yet, I got home last night and looked at the replay with my mother and father and I went to bed then as I’d to be up to go to work in Joseph O’Brien’s this morning so I’d say I’ll watch it a few times again this evening!

7.50PM

Waiting For Perfection

The day after Sea The Stars won the Arc he was paraded in front of a media throng at John Oxx's yard. An unaware news reporter asked me what we were looking at: I told him it was the nearest thing to perfection either of us would ever get. He looked at me like I was high. But the finest horse of a generation was the exception proving the rule that waiting for perfection in racing involves waiting forever.

9.27AM

Denis Hogan

Pulling up after winning the Grade 2 Charleville Mares Chase on Youcantcallherthat last week I knew that it was the biggest winner of my riding career but it was only afterwards that it dawned on me that it was also the biggest winner of my training career.

8.42PM

Jack Kennedy

Last week was pretty unreal if I’m honest. Anyone would be happy with one winner at Cheltenham so to have four was just a dream come true to be honest.

9.27PM

Trust & Reputation

The British Horseracing Authority is technically entitled to drug test horses entered to run in Britain, just as the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board - formerly the Turf Club - is entitled to do the same vice versa. A good argument can be made for such tests being routine. There can hardly be too much out-of-competition testing. But no one it seems can remember Irish authorities ever going into yards in Britain. So it was a pointed call by the BHA to take it upon themselves to inspect the festival runners of Irish racing's two biggest trainers the week before Cheltenham.

9.16AM

Philip Reynolds

I’m just delighted to be going to Cheltenham with a couple of very nice horses, Presenting Percy and Mall Dini, trained by a very good friend Pat Kelly, and both are the head of their respective markets although in a sense I would probably prefer if they were outsiders as there wouldn’t be as much hype about them!

9.42AM

Brits Need To Bite Back

Last year Irish trained horses won a record 19 Cheltenham festival races. There's 6-1 floating around about Irish trained horses beating that haul this time. No doubt more ridiculous bets than that will be made over the coming four days. But short-term gratification about this unprecedented period of Irish dominance needs to be tempered by longer term considerations. The health of National Hunt racing's greatest showpiece event really needs the Brits to bite back this week.

8.37AM

Ross O'Sullivan

They were saying that was the worst snow since 1982, the year I was born, and I hope it is another 35 years before we have anything like it again. If you talk to anyone in racing they’ll tell you how hard the last week was but everyone was in the same boat.

10.28PM

Willie Mullins

My first visit to the Cheltenham Festival was in 1978 which, funnily enough, was the year of the snow. We woke up on Gold Cup day and the whole place was white and the races were called off. We are now hoping there won’t be a repeat 40 years on but the Cheltenham weather people say it is not going to be like that.

9.13AM

Tone Deaf

With a fortnight to Cheltenham every twist and niggle becomes an issue. A couple of days on the easy list can be a major festival blow for any horse. Then there's final running plans, who rides what, what's blooming in their work. It all makes how information is disseminated to the betting public an even more pressing topic. So it will be interesting to see how much relevant news will be put into the public domain in the next couple of weeks courtesy of bookmakers and betting organisations.

8.21AM

Donnchadh Doyle

Going to the Tattersalls Sales in Cheltenham last Thursday I thought we were going over with a nice horse, Dlauro, and I was expecting him to sell well but I probably didn't think he’d make £410,000 as a five-year-old.

6.14PM

Darren Bunyan

Hit The Bid’s victory in Dubai last week was absolutely fantastic and I am hopeful that the horse can build on that and develop into a Group 1 performer this year.

9.15PM

Derek O'Connor

I left home at 8am yesterday morning with my wife, Carol, and we headed to Ballinaboola in Wexford where I had one ride at the point-to-point on a horse called Appreciate It for Pat Doyle. I probably didn't think that when I got home at 10.30pm yesterday evening that I’d be after winning an Irish Gold Cup at Leopardstown.

9.05PM

Olly Murphy

After four years of working with Gordon Elliott I came home to my family place to start training and I’d be lying if I didn't say that I am thrilled with how we’ve started since July.

9.55PM

I Wouldn't Cross The Road

A lot of those diehard National Hunt fans the country is supposedly full of - the ones who famously wouldn't cross the road to see the Derby - seem to have plans to be somewhere else rather than Leopardstown for this weekend's 'Dublin Racing Festival.' This is a showcase concentration of some of the sport's most valuable races into two days. It's the National Hunt version of 'Irish Champions Weekend.' It's worth €1.5 million. It can hardly get better. And the place won't be full.

9.21AM

Aine O'Connor

Riding Drumcliff to victory at Ascot last Saturday was undoubtedly the biggest kick I’ve got out of racing since the very first day I ever sat on a racehorse.

4.22PM

Declan McDonogh

My time in Australia has been great and really enjoyable and I’ve got a lot of support from a lot of different people including a variety of different trainers. I came down to spend time with Peter and Paul Snowden but trainers like Gai Waterhouse and Anthony Cummins have backed me and I’ve ridden a winner for Godolphin as well down here so it has been a great experience.

5.16PM

Sean McDermott

Being based in America is quite different than here at home - and sometimes not the easiest when you are a homebird like myself - but it was nice to come home for Christmas with my girlfriend and thanks to Ruaidhrí Tierney I squeezed in a winner at Leopardstown too! 

1.56PM

And The Award Goes To...

At this time of year there are no marks for originality in taking a look back at 2017, just as there are no brownie points for pointing out how Colin Keane is a shoo-in for any 'jockey-of-the-year' award floating about. Aidan O'Brien's Group 1 world record has been amply rewarded at various legitimate ceremonies as well, as has Jessica Harrington's towering achievements with 'Horse of the Year' Sizing John. But there's just enough time to squeeze in a few sham baubles too.

3.17PM

Ten Random Christmas Stocking Fillers

First of all, a rallying call: racing is brilliant. It really is - and not just because its cheerleaders say so. The cheerleading actually does the game no favours. After a while it becomes a drone blotting out any sort of criticism. And the thing with criticism of any merit is that it comes from a basis of enthusiasm. It's rooted in a desire to change things for the better. No one wants to be cribbing all the time but all cheerleading does is maintain the status quo. That's no good to anyone.

8.18PM

Dylan Robinson

After a frustrating summer with injury it’s great to be back amongst the winners and I have my boss, Henry De Bromhead, to thank for that. I’m based with Henry full time now and he has shown plenty of faith in me to put me back up on some good horses and it’s thanks to him that I’ve been able to get five winners since I got back.

3.56PM

Thomas Sherry

To get my first winner on the board at Dundalk last month was really a relief more than anything. I’d be looking at the other 10lbs claimers riding winners and it is very competitive out there but you get the winner and it just gives you something more to look forward to.

8.21PM

Colin Keane

It has been a good few weeks since the season ended and it was a pleasant surprise to have so many people coming up to me in Trim, shaking my hand and congratulating me on winning the championship. It was nice because a lot of the people you wouldn't think follow racing so to have caught their attention and for them to want to come up to me and say ‘well done’ is a nice feeling. It has definitely sunk in now.

7.03PM

M J Doran

Being involved in a Melbourne Cup winner was an incredible experience, an experience of a lifetime, and one that I was quite literally very lucky to have.

8.52PM

Robert Power

This morning Sizing John was the centre of attention in Jessie’s as the racing press were all there to see him ahead of the Betfair Chase at Haydock this weekend and obviously it is a very exciting week to be riding a horse like him in a Grade 1 race like that.

9.14PM

Paul Townend

Riding Next Destination to win at Naas on Saturday is a sharp reminder of how good a position I am in as second jockey to Ruby Walsh. I’d say this is my ninth season being second jockey to Willie Mullins and it is a fantastic position to be in, but I do know that the downside to that job is that I’m only borrowing Next Destination and I’ll be handing him back to Ruby the next day!

7.34PM

David Casey

It’s a little over two years since I retired from race riding and while I don’t miss the day to day lifestyle of going here, there and everywhere, I do miss that adrenalin buzz from a race that you can never replace.

2.18PM

Peter Flood

Everybody knows just how competitive Irish racing is at the moment but I absolutely love being involved in the sport and between training a few myself for point-to-points and working in Gordon Elliott’s five days a week, I probably have the best of both worlds at the moment.

8.45AM

Yes Minister

It's approaching two years since an Anti-Doping Task Force recommended how the Irish bloodstock industry could best preserve its reputation after various steroids controversies. The news the Task Force has been reconvened because one of its central recommendations - a protocol to allow testing on stud farms - still can't be agreed is stark evidence of a stalled process. So in return for state support now is the time for the Minister for Agriculture to demand better standards than this farce.

10.31AM

Oisin Orr

No matter what happens for the last couple of weeks of this season it has been a good year and I’ve had my highest number of winners and achieved my goal at the start of the season. This year I just wanted to get my claim down from 5lbs to 3lbs, that was my only aim and I managed to achieve that so I’m happy enough with that and now I’ll just keep going and see how many more I can get. If we get anything else out of it it would be a bonus.

8.36PM

PJ McDonald

Winning a Group 1 on Laurens last Friday was the culmination of over 20 years of hard work and dreaming and while it has been a long road, it was one worth travelling.

7.51PM

Lock & Load

John Gosden was asked recently to reflect on what is turning into Aidan O'Brien's greatest season. \"I have enormous respect for the quality of the horses and the superb training of them,\" Britain's top trainer said. It was a typically fluent statement. O'Brien receives a couple of hundred of the best bred raw material every year and trains them outstandingly well. It's a combination which makes him a statistical phenomenon. The combination is also inextricably linked.

9.04AM

Katie O'Farrell

Growing up around horses it was probably inevitable that it would be a route that I’d go down but two years ago I made the decision to leave the amateur ranks and turn professional as a 7lbs conditional rider and after a rough six months on the sidelines through injury, now I’m hoping to kick start things as the winter approaches.

4.06PM