Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

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

Kevin Brouder

Since riding my first winner on the track at Listowel last month I couldn't have really dreamed that things would go how they have in the last couple of weeks but long may it continue I suppose.

7.34PM

Nina Carberry

When I drove into Ballinrobe last week I knew it was good to be back but the winner certainly made it even better and to have three winners from my first four rides back is great and I’m just very grateful to Noel Meade, who has always been very good to me, and to Gordon who is also going to support me.

8.21PM

Killian McCarthy

Saturday at Gowran Park was the realisation of a very long term goal for me. After over 10 years of trying, over €40,000 raised for various charities, and a few sacrifices along the way, I managed to live the experience of what it is like to ride a winner on the track in leg two of the 2017 Corinthian Challenge. It didn’t disappoint.

9.52PM

Brendan Duke

It is an absolute pleasure to train Warm The Voice for Jim and Jackie Bolger and we had another terrific day at Listowel on Monday. It’s a stark reality within the yard that this is a multi-talented, very high class colt that has loads of improvement left in him.

9.35PM

Brendan Sheridan

When I was still riding a position to join the Turf Club was advertised and I took a chance in applying for the role and I was fortunate enough to get the job - that was 21 years ago - and on Tuesday I will officiate at Ireland’s most unique fixture at Laytown.

7.44PM

Takashi Kodama

Surviving as a trainer is so hard in Ireland and it is very hard to win races but winning the Irish Cambridgeshire at the Curragh Racecourse was my best ever result as a trainer and I would say it is unbelievable. Our mission when running in the race was to finish in the first 10… that was my mission, so to win the race makes me very, very happy.

5.12PM

Derek McGrath Curragh CEO

Racing is not something that I grew up around or was actively involved in when I was growing up but since making the move into the industry I have continued to learn an awful lot about it and am really enjoying it.

3.42PM

It's Silly Season

When people argue for 'culture change' it's often safe to assume they're bluffing for the sake of saying something. It's the same with phrases such as 'mindset.' They're helpfully vague and can be unaccompanied by detail. They've certainly helped yours truly out more than once. But when it comes to helping the lot of female jockeys there really does need to be a change of culture and mindset. And if that seems too wishy-washy then early detail of the impact of French racing's allowance for female riders indicates such change can be tangible sometimes.

9.13AM

Peter Fahey

Thankfully we’ve enjoyed a great start to the new season and things have been going well this summer but we’re just lucky to have the nice horses to train.

5.02PM

Aubrey McMahon

Winning the big amateur race at the Galway Festival is certainly a feeling I haven't had too often. When I crossed the line on Whiskey Sour, Patrick Mullins and Katie Walsh were roaring at me saying well done and I just said “I can’t believe it’s after happening”, it was a feeling I can’t really describe.

10.15PM

Shark Hanlon

When you are a neighbour of a star man like I was to Paddy Mullins, you have to develop some interest in horses and growing up so close to Paddy always had me intrigued and eventually I got out of the cattle dealing and went in to training horses and we are happy out there now with the horses.

12.00PM

Sooner Rather Than Later

British racing is taking its first steps towards replacing amateur stewards with professional panels. Racing is too big for its regulation to be seen left in the hands of well-meaning volunteers. It's inevitable here too. The perception of a state-subsidised industry aspiring towards €2 billion in value being policed by well-intentioned amateurs regulating their own isn't sustainable. Yet it still appears to be very much a case of later rather than sooner when it comes to acknowledging this.

8.59AM

Jody McGarvey

One man’s misfortune can often be another man’s gain and with both Barry Geraghty and Mark Walsh out through injury recently, I’ve been lucky enough to get a lot of opportunities for JP McManus and things have been going great.

4.56PM

Don't Believe All Of The Hype

We're endlessly reminded how racing is a game of opinions. And there is no subject to conjure firmer opinions than jockeys. That's common to everywhere. What's fascinating is how divergent such opinions can get either side of the Irish Sea. Ryan Moore gets routinely referred to in Britain as the world's leading jockey and is near-venerated by a media he affects to despise with his position as Coolmore's No.1 widely regarded as little more than his due. Yet in Ireland he seems to provoke a more lukewarm response.

9.06AM

Josh Sheahan

When I went to Limerick last Sunday to watch my horse, Top Of The Town, run, I didn’t expect to go viral after it, but I’ve people texting me from America, Australia and New Zealand about it and it’s gone a bit mad altogether. And that’s after he lost. If he’d have won you may forget about it! But that’s what it’s all about, having a laugh and the craic.

9.17AM

It Doesn't Do What It Says On Tin

The law may be an ass but racing's laws are more of a camel. Only a camel construction committee could come up with a system that allows you win even if you foul through interference or breaking the whip rules. Currently the focus is on another integrity contradiction which long ago bypassed any oasis of good sense and continues to lumber through the regulatory desert. Pacemakers go against both the word and spirit of the rules of racing. But no time soon will the practise stop.

9.07AM

Michael Higgins

Being the general manager of the Irish Injured Jockeys means that some days can turn quite challenging but others can become quite rewarding. No two days are the same in this job but it’s great to see the charity moving forward quicker than we ever could have hoped since the Irish Injured Jockeys was set up in 2014.

11.59PM

'Ah Here!'

The 2017 Irish Derby shows how racing lacks quite a few things. A basic self-awareness for one. Restricting access to its showpiece event was a joke in PR terms: failure to even make the paltry capacity limit turned it into a sad joke. It also revealed a sadder failure to appreciate how taking state money behoves an industry to not treat the public as intruders. Racing's playpen has rarely looked more childishly self-absorbed or indulgent. But what the Derby debacle really showed once again is a lack of anyone in authority prepared to shout 'Ah Here!'

9.10AM

John Tuthill

Being a breeder and watching a filly that you have kept to race go and win a stakes races on her last racecourse appearance is a dream scenario and it was wonderful to live that dream with Penny Pepper at the Curragh last month.

4.11PM

Tip-Toeing Through The Minefield

The seemingly interminable talks about a protocol that will allow the Turf Club drug-test on stud farms still go on. However Horse Racing Ireland, and specifically its chief executive Brian Kavanagh, has got involved in negotiations between the regulatory body and the Breeders Association. Kavanagh's ability to tip-toe through racing's political minefield is renowned. So maybe he can finally bring this to a satisfactory conclusion because God alone knows it won't be before time.

9.39AM

Rachael Blackmore

From my point of view, the decision to turn professional and become the first ever female jockey in Ireland to do so, was a no brainer, but I really never dreamed it would go this well and riding out my claim at Wexford on Wednesday capped off an incredible few months.

4.04PM

The January Waste Land

April may be the cruellest month but the new 'February Jumps Festival' looks like making January the dullest. The decision to create a new super €1.5 million National Hunt festival follows the racing trend towards showpiece concentrations of excellence. It will result in one superb weekend's action at Leopardstown. It will also reduce a substantial number of other weeks to mostly filler status and that's a debatable outcome for the sport overall.

9.01AM

This Isn't Hardcore

There have been six Curragh meetings run this year and the focus during each of them has often been on how the decision not to close down during the track's €70 million reconstruction is a slap in the face to the racing public. And it's a valid argument if not entirely straightforward. For instance it's interesting to consider just how valid much of the speculation about the impact on racing's hardcore fans actually is. Because just how many such hardcore fans exist? Are there even a thousand in the country?

9.28AM

History On The Hoof

As well as showing great poise in pulling off a shock Epsom Derby victory, Padraig Beggy was impressive too in acknowledging his success was mostly down to Aidan O'Brien. As racing loyalty goes this was exceptional stuff. And Beggy took his opportunity in such style that there's no slight in pointing out the suspicion that if O'Brien can supply such an unlikely hero with an indelible place in racing history then there really does seem to be no limit to what he can do.

9.10AM

Gone Fishing

Actual racing doesn't come much better than the Guineas festival weekend at the Curragh. Three Group 1's including two classics and a handful of other valuable races show off flat racing at its very best. In elite sporting terms if this doesn't float your boat then it's time to go fishing. So how dispiriting is it that HQ's controversial reduced 6,000 capacity didn't come even half way to being threatened on either day. Spin it any way you like but that's lamentable.

9.10AM

Tone Change Needed On Interference Rules

It's four months since the Turf Club introduced its new 'Running and Riding' rules. The impact in terms of making penalties stick has been dramatic. Eight 'Non-Trier' penalties have been handed out. Four were appealed. One was entirely successful and another partially so. Statistically it's hardly earth-shattering stuff which only proves how misleading statistics can be. Because culturally the new rules have been transformative.

9.01AM

A Frilly Point To Point

The improvisational skill of those on the ground at the Curragh is to be applauded. To produce the facilities for racing to continue during the €70 million redevelopment of Irish racing's most famous track is no easy feat. That it's not easy to dismiss the suggestion those facilities might be prettier than a lot of what was torn down says much about what the Curragh had turned into. But after such an admirable exhibition of improvisation the obvious question still remains - why is it necessary?

9.13AM

Drinking The Churchill 'Kool-Aid'

It's fair to say opinions are divided on Churchill's Guineas success. Either he's the next great or he got lucky. Dismissing as lucky a champion juvenile who proceeds to win the 2,000 Guineas seems very harsh indeed. Neither however can anyone pretend Churchill stunned Newmarket with his flamboyance on Saturday. But maybe showy brilliance is simply not his thing. To use the cliché, maybe he really is one of those horses who only does just enough.

8.42AM

Judging A Bookmaker By Its Cover

Perception is a buzzword right now and about time too. Judging a book by its cover might be mistaken but racing's integrity is often as much about how things look as how they actually are. So while jockeys and trainers signing up with bookmakers for their exclusive thoughts might in reality be little more than a nice little sideline earner, and a mostly harmless exercise in advertising baloney, in terms of perception it can look uncomfortably cosy.

9.24AM

Maths For Dummies

A blizzard of complex stats, tots, trends and percentages will accompany the trainer's championship at Punchestown this week. Gordon Elliott V Willie Mullins is the heavyweight clash which has dominated the 2016-17 campaign and promises to bring a remarkable season to a memorable climax. So facts will be flung and statistics slung. But facts and truth aren't synonymous and the truth is the most significant sum in all this is pretty straightforward.

9.21AM

Begging The Questions

It's the job of those charged with promotion to promote so it's hard to criticise bigging-up this year's Boylesports Irish Grand National and its new €500,000 pot. Almost doubling the prizemoney was linked to boosting the National's quality and profile. There's no doubt a tagline of the richest jumps race ever run in Ireland is snappy. But quality-wise it's hard not to think the same field would still have turned up for the old money no matter what anyone says.

9.08AM

How's About The Start?

Perhaps the most admirable element to One For Arthur's Grand National success was the faith shown in jockey Derek Fox by the horse's connections. This was a prime Aintree candidate. Presumably plenty agents for more high-profile riders were offering their services, especially with injury doubts about Fox on the run-up to the race. With so much on the line it would have been easy to look elsewhere. But the 24 year old Sligo man got an opportunity and took it in style.

8.45AM

Culture Change

Asking how long culture-change takes is like asking how long is a piece of string. But it's ultimately in everyone's best interest that the culture surrounding racing's 'Non-Trier' regulations changes quickly. Encouragement that the new Rule 212 might provoke that rarest of racing feats - actual change - comes from the voices currently being raised against it. Racing is onto something here. What's required now is perseverance with this badly needed change of regulatory culture.

9.05AM